Pony Academy
by KittyZozo3366
Summary: Mary has come to a new private school called Perry Academy. But secrets are behind every friend she makes and every step she takes. What is the principal hiding, and quite possibly her new friends?
1. Warm Welcomes, Part 1

_ Princess Twilight and Prince Fire Dawn were the newest royals to Equestria. It had been a good millennia before they had ever had a new ruler. But the day they became ruler, something happened: the very balance of nature was thrown off. The new rulers had become royal allicorns through the dishonest means of magic, and that meant chaos was rising. Discord, the most serious threat that was ever made to Equestria, came back. And this time, he only wanted _revenge. _The world they once knew was thrown into an apocalyptic state. All hope lost, Discord turned everypony into the most chaotic creature he could think of: human beings. Princess Twilight, desperate to help her citizens, made a gate before she was captured. A gate…to the real world._

"Mary? Mary!"

"Huh? What?" I woke up with a start. We were in my mom's car, and I had fallen asleep, again. For the past few months, I had been having sleep problems. Not only that, but I had been having the weirdest dreams. No doctors had been able to find a cure for it. But that's not relevant; what was is that I was going to a private school.

I took a box of essentials: food, supplies needed for the classes I would take, and some random knick-knacks. The car finally came to a complete stop as my mom announced, "Here we are; PerryAcademy." I took off my seatbelt and carrying the box of essentials, I got out of the shotgun seat. The campus had students from all around, and I was just one of many. I looked back to my mother, and said, "I'll call you as soon I get situated into my dorm, okay?"

"Alright," she sighed. "I'll try and text you everyday, alright?"

"I'll make sure to respond." After a tearful farewell, I looked around again. The principal said that she would meet me out here, but I didn't see her anywhere. I then heard a voice from behind that asked, "Are you new here?"

I turned around to see a young man not too much older than myself. He had brown hair, which was tucked underneath a brown hat, and was wearing a brown trench coat. He was wearing yellow jeans, and brown shoes that matched everything but the pants. I greeted, "Oh, hello. I was…supposed to meet the principal out here, but…she seems to not be arriving until later."

"Actually," he laughed, "I was supposed to get a new girl to come to come with me." I pointed to myself, hoping he would know what it meant. "Yes, I'm guessing it's you!" I smiled, and asked, "Shouldn't there be more new arrivals?"

"Well, you'd think." He started walking to the principal's office. "For one thing, the school's expensive, and only a few out of many can afford it. And another thing, it's kind of a ways out of town, and most people just want to go to a public school anyway. But don't worry; the teachers here are more attentive to the student's needs. Oh, and also, most of the kids got here last week to settle down and make friends."

"Oh…" I said under my breath, feeling out of place. He just laughed, "Don't worry. The students and teachers here are very welcoming of newcomers, so you won't stick out. I should also note you that the school has no strict dress code, but it's important you wear the sweater-vests so they know you're a student." We stopped outside of a door marked, _Principal's Office_. He turned around to face me again. "Any questions?"

"Yeah, two. One: what's your name, and two: do you work here?"

"My name is Charlie, sophomore, and I help the principal to sort of get to know the students. I don't have an official title, though."

"How about 'Principal-Student Relations'?" I joked, sitting down in a nearby chair. Charlie sat down as well and laughed, "Hey, that just might work. Principal Romore should be out in just a few minutes." It wouldn't have taken long for her to come out, I knew, but I soon fell asleep. And just when I thought my sleep disorder wouldn't be important…

_ "I…I need to get out of here…._

_ "How….how can I survive without food?" The blonde girl looked at her surroundings. She had on an orange buttoned blouse, dark jeans, cowboy boots and a hat to match. She found herself in the cellar where they kept preserves. She looked at the last of the hard cider and with a groan, drank it all down. "Where's all the cider gone?"_

_ "__**Heh, maybe if you didn't drown your sorrows in it, there would still be some left,**__" an unfriendly voice replied._

_ "Can it, Discord. You're the only reason I'm drinkin' down this stuff…" She threw the bottle into the sky, only for it to shatter to the ground. She took up a nearby broom and sighed, "The days you show up never make it easier…"_

_ "__**Well, I seem to enjoy it. Why don't you return the favor?**__" She gave an angry scowl to the sky and replied, "Discord, you've been messing with me an' my family for 500 years now. I wouldn't care if you smite me right here, right now!"_

_ "__**Oh, that would be no fun. There's no fun in dead ponies, so I made you immortal, not to mention human. I thought you would enjoy it…**__"_

_ "What I would enjoy is for you to let us have a free pass to th' Elements of Harmony, because I'm gettin' tired of havin' the same gosh-darn argument with you every other day of my stinkin' life!"_

_ "__**Well, it doesn't matter now. Not keeping bonds for five centuries really takes its toll on their power…**__"_

_ "I ain't ever givin' up! There is nothin' you can say to convince me to go through that gate!" There was a silence for a minute. She said to herself in triumph, "That did the trick," but soon heard a knock on the cellar door. She walked to the door to open it, shouting, "If this is some refugees, we aren't takin'! We're all out of food and I don't have any ban-!"_

_ She opened the cellar door and gasped, "Sweet mother of all that is good an' pure…" She saw two people, who would've been ponies if they weren't cursed right now. The women, to her right, looked middle-aged in human terms. She had blonde hair that was natural, although light brown highlights were starting to set in. She had on a faded red blouse and had a dark red handkerchief on. The man had curly red hair and white hairs were coming in, as he was also middle-aged. He wore a hat that vaguely reminded her of the Flim-Flam Brothers, a bowtie and collar, and a yellow-green shirt._

_ "Mom! Dad!" Applejack exclaimed, throwing her arms around them. She started to shed tears. "I-I've never been this happy all of my life…why did ya'll come back after so long?" The parents released from her tight hug, and the mother, her name Lucky Shot, answered, "Well, Granny Smith is right in telling you we were at Hoofington. It's just…business started coming up, and things kept getting in the way. Eventually, when the chaos hit there, we decided that our girl wouldn't be safe on her own, even with the news that you were an Element of Harmony. It…took us a while to find this old place, and with the chaos happening everywhere, it was much harder to find it. But…it was all worth it to see my daughter again!"_

_ "Come on in!" She gestured to the cellar door and both of her parents went in. She took a look at her surroundings. Somewhere, the lowly farmhand that she had hired was picking off the overgrown apple trees, getting scuffed and bruised from going up in the high branches. But after a while, she got to appreciating the help of her friends and neighbors, and hoped that the farmhand would bring enough back for some visitors._

"Are you sure that she's the one?"

"Yes, and that—Oh, she's waking up." I opened my eyes to see Charlie and…a woman staring at me. The woman was wearing a pink dress suit and had wavy blonde hair, which was much fairer than my dirty blonde. I questioned the woman, "Principal Romore, I presume?"

She nodded. "And you must be Mary. It's very nice to meet one of the newest students to join us here at PerryAcademy. I will take you to your dorms and help you with your things." She took the box out of my hands and smiled. I smiled back, getting up. "Oh, thank you!"

"It's the least I can do," she reassured me. I followed her to wherever my dorm might be as she explained, "I just got out of a board meeting, and would be happy to show you to you room. Over the past few months"-she sighed as she opened a door for me—"We haven't been getting many submission forms for here. Most people don't want to pay and with some families taking their kids out, we're quickly losing money."

"That must be rough." I looked around the school grounds as we soon made it back inside to the dorm rooms. She turned to look at me, like she was observing my looks and quickly turned back. "Mary, how did you get those pink streaks in your hair?" I looked to my up-do, which was a mass of bobby pins, hairspray and sheer willpower holding together. Yet, I was able to pull it all off.

"My mom let me dye it," I simply replied as we walked up a flight of stairs. "My friends put different streaks in theirs. I also noticed some of the students here had them."

"Oh, that's what every student here seems to be doing," she stated. "Heck,_ I_ may have to join the trend just to look 'cool.'" I laughed at the thought, but she didn't look back, probably because she knew that not all teachers were blessed with being the cool ones. She came to a door marked _65P. _

"Well, here we are," my principal told me, setting the box right next to the door. "This will be your dorm room. Oh! I forgot to mention. I usually pair up the Freshmen with the higher-people-on-the-totem-pole, so to speak, so you will be rooming with a Miss…Jackie Hollings. I hope you don't mind…"

"No! Really, it's okay…" I said, taking a bag of snacks from out of the box of dorm stuff. "But she knows I'm going to be here, right?"

"We try to let the higher-grade students know who they're going to be roomed with, though for Jackie, she said 'surprise me.'" We both laughed at her joke, and with a wave good-bye, she left. I put the opened snack bag back in the box and carried the box inside. I put the box down near the bed and checked my surroundings. It was a small dorm, as most are only one room, but it had a separate bathroom, which was nice. The room had plain white walls that were covered with various posters, drawings, and other decorations. There was a full-body mirror, a desk, and a small armoire at the foot of the bunk bed. I laid down on the bed and the feeling of sleep quickly passed over me.

_Applejack set up a table in the cider cellar, out of a box and an old sheet, just to impress her parents. She was very nervous around them. After all, it had been a very, VERY long time. They had left only a few days after Applebloom's birth, and were gone afterwards. She wanted to impress them. She turned to see them both crouching to sit at the makeshift table and asked, "So, how are the relatives in Hoofington?"_

_ "They were wondering about where you were," her mother explained. "But we couldn't bring you there because you were still in school, of course. I was still in pain from just giving birth to Applebloom a few days earlier, but I was still healthy enough to make the trip with your father. So, how's your brother, Big Macintosh been doing?"_

_ "He left," AJ solemnly stated, "said he was looking for somepony, and needed to help her…" _

_ "And how's Granny Smith? I didn't see her around when we came…"_

_ "Oh…" Applejack's heart sank when her mom mentioned that name. She decided if her Element were going to shine through in these hard times, it'd be now. "Granny Smith…she died a long time ago. Before we were all cursed with immortality. I-I'm sorry, I should've told you when y'all came…"_

_ "It's okay, dear." The tired mother got up from crouching down. "After all, honesty is the best policy." Applejack started to get tears in her eyes as memories of her early childhood came flooding back. She sniffled, "I…I remember you always told me that…" and hugged them as tight as she could._

_ Suddenly, there was another knock on the cellar door. Not complaining like she did the first time she answered it, she opened it and wholeheartedly smiled at the figure. It was a male, a brunette to be precise. He wore a collared shirt, like most of the people around the farm did. He was holding a basket of apples, filled to the brim, but you could tell he had been through a lot to fill it. His shirt and jeans were all scuffed up, and he had visible bruises and cuts all over his skin._

_ "Hey, Caramel," she greeted, allowing him inside. He went down the steps and noticed the other two people immediately. Putting the basket down to his side, he asked, "So, who are these guys?"_

_ "Caramel, these are my folks. They finally came back…" He shook hands with both, but looked at them nervous. Caramel then looked at AJ, and asked her parents, "Can we have a minute to ourselves?" The parents turned around while Caramel took Applejack to a more private section of the cellar. There, he pulled her down. She asked, a bit annoyed, "Caramel, what are you doin'?"_

_ "AJ…how long has it been since you've seen your parents? Well, not counting the years we've been stuck like this."_

_ "Um…I don't know…I was about seven when they left…er, and I was 28, so….21 years?"_

_ "How many times have you thought about the likelihood of their return after about…say, one third of those years?"_

_ "Caramel, what are you implying?"_

_ "I'm thinking…that those aren't your real parents out there."_

_ "Caramel, you've made many mistakes about these kinds of things before…" Then and there, Caramel remembered his real name, Chance-a-lot. Through chances, he had gotten through life, and through even more luck, he met Applejack. He became a farmhand to her, and through even more chance, got his cutie mark. For many, the horseshoes cutie mark meant either hoof-shining in Manehattan or service or assistance to somepony else._

_ "But I'm pretty sure I'm not flubbing this," Caramel replied, stopping his brain from going off-track. Applejack sighed, "What am I gonna do with you?" She then heard her mother call, "AJ! There's something me and my father want to talk to you about." AJ got up from sitting, and with a stern glare at Caramel, said, "Don't you dare ruin this for me." Caramel quickly nodded, and followed her back to where her parents were standing. AJ looked at her parents and asked, "What is it?"_

_ "Before we came here…" her mother said, looking a bit nervous, "we decided it would be best if all of the family members…come with us to the gate."_

_ "The gate?!" Applejack exclaimed, both shocked and worried. Being one of the Princess' good friends, she knew where the gate went. Once you went through, and if you were an earth pony, you lost all of your memories. As a unicorn or Pegasus, it was even worse. You had to hide your horn or wings, memories from this world in tact. The pegusi and unicorns were meant to keep ponies alive and survive for many generations, trying to keep them from losing sight of what was important: saving this world by finding the True Wings._

_ "Are you insane?!" AJ exclaimed again, stopping her thoughts from trailing away. "My friends, the Elements, they need me to stay here!"_

_ "Your friends are probably dead!" Her mom shouted._

_ "N-no," her daughter said, firmly holding to what she thought was true. "My friends would never desert me, and I'm gonna go out there and prove it to you." She started to walk back to the ladder and door, but her mom grabbed her wrist as tight as she could. Her mother argued, "No, you're my little girl, and you're coming with me!"_

_ "I'm not your little girl anymore! I can take care of myself!" She tried desperately to get out of her mother's grip, but it wouldn't budge. She tugged at it with both hands, and Caramel soon tried to help her out of the grip as well. AJ finally was successful, but found to her horror, her mom's arm was stuck to her, still gripping to her wrist. Her mother's hand was missing, and her face was starting to drip away like wax. AJ looked in horror, and stated nervously, "Caramel…I have the feeling you were right…."_

_ "Applejack…..I'm so sorry…"_

_ "What are you sorry for?" she scoffed. "You're obviously creations of Discord."_

_ "We….we are…and I'm sure….that if we were your real parents…they would really love you…." Every word she spoke was true, as her wax melted away. By the time there was nothing left of her but a puddle, AJ found her "father" had become a common cricket. Applejack chuckled. Caramel looked at her oddly. "What's so funny?"_

_ "I was right. Discord works cheap. Remember that rock I told you about?" He laughed, remembering that story. He sat down, and shooed the cricket away. AJ sat down next to him, a worried look on her face. "Caramel…what if they're right? What if…my friends have deserted me?"_

_ "AJ, your friends would never desert you, and if they _did_ go through there, they'd never leave another Element of Harmony behind." Applejack put her arms around him, tearing up. He soon did the same, and patted her back to comfort her._

I awoke with a start, my pillow soaking wet with cold sweat. I saw the moon was waxing outside. I laughed to myself and thought, _waxing…that had something to do with my dream…didn't it? _I shrugged it aside and got a box of snacks from my box. As I crunched down the junk food, I heard a groan. I looked to the bunk bed and found the roommate the principal had spoke of on the top bunk.

She had ginger hair, long eyelashes, and was wearing a zebra-print night shirt with striped pajama pants. I didn't want to wake her just to ask who she was, so I went back to bed quickly. Soon realizing I had brought no nightgown with me, I quickly fell asleep to another dream I would have no memory of.

_ The shop was closed. The doors were bolted, and the windows were shut. The delicious smell of food had gone away, and all the first floor of Sugarcube Corner had to offer was a thick layer of dust. The only person there was up in her room, sleeping away her life, hoping that everything outside would go away._

_ The turmoil, both physical and psychological, was unbearable. The windows were boarded up so she couldn't see the horrid scene outside. Most of Ponyville had been destroyed, and only the buildings with people still in them were spared, only for Discord to use the people later for his own shenanigans._

_ She was probably one of the people he used most often. She used to love his chaos; the silly kind of course. But when she found a more serious side to it all, she swore she would never enjoy it again. Her poufy hair had gone flat, and would remain that way. She then awoke to a voice she wish she had forgotten._

_ "__**Hm, Pinkie Pie, I know you stayed this way for most of my time back, but could you…I don't know…get up and be fun again?**__" She growled in response, "My world is dead. There's no fun here anymore. Since you made my world dead, why don't you DROP DEAD?!" He scolded her, "__**Now that's no way to treat somepony's company you once enjoyed…**__"_

_ "There's nothing to enjoy. Maybe I did, but there's nothing fun about the world as you've made it now." He flashed in, as she could see, and gave a stern look to him. He asked, "Pinkie, why do you even try to hide behind this serious façade?"_

_ "Because, if I show any emotion but bitter hatred towards you, you'll use it against me." He couldn't deny that; he relished in playing with ponies' (or now people's) emotions, especially the weak and naïve. But, he still stated, "Pinkie, think of all the memories we had together." _

_ Suddenly, memories came flooding back. She knew that this was his magic. He loved using it on her to stir up any emotions he could to make her less stoic. The labyrinth appeared in her mind, so vivid, both in mind and body. She felt all the emotions he put her through again: joy, then confusion, then sadness, and finally anger. The anger lingered over her for what seemed like days, and he wanted to bring it up again, but not anger for _him; _anger for the ones she loved._

_ Pinkie tried her best to hold back the tears, and put a pillow in her arms and buried her face in it. Right now, she wanted it to stop. She would've begged and pleaded, but she knew that was exactly what he wanted. The memories ceased, and she said, trying to keep her voice steady, "Get out…of my house…"_

_ "Well, it's not like I want to go," he stated, ignoring her request. "I'm just going to keep putting you through this, unless….__**you'd rather leave.**__" Oh, it was so hard not to take the request now. He filled her mind with more thoughts; thoughts of the others leaving her behind, and if she didn't go through the gate now, they would never remember her._

_ Then she saw what would happen if she went through the gate. The world on the other side was lush, but like anything, had its down sides. Her hair was curly again, and she would go on with her life carefree…and with no knowledge of what Equestria was like. She was not angry now, she was seething with rage. She couldn't hold it back anymore._

_ "__**GET OUT OF MY ROOM!**__" She threw the pillow she had buried her face in at Discord. It would've been a perfect shot if he hadn't flashed out. She sighed, and looked around. After all these years, she had trained herself to feel if he could hear her; it was like a modified Pinkie sense. She didn't feel anything, and that was her cue to let the tears flow._

_ She bawled all of her sorrows out. In the hour, her bed was now littered with tissues. She looked to an old, worn picture of her friends on the nightstand. She was an Element of Harmony. The Element of Laughter, and Discord's favorite Element, probably because he enjoyed laughter himself. But she knew there was a difference. She asked herself aloud, "If I get joy out of making ponies happy, why does he get joy out of making ponies suffer?" Even after 500 years, she could never understand._


	2. Warm Welcomes, Part 2

I awoke to the sounds of birds chirping and talk outside. I groaned, and looked at my surroundings. I was in my clothes from yesterday, and forgetting to bring any clothes, was in need of an outfit. I then noticed there was someone munching on a bowl of cereal at the desk seat. She waved at me, and greeted, "Hello. I noticed you last night sleeping in my spot."

"Oh, this is yours?" I immediately got out of the bed and was up. "I'm so sorry, I just-!" She laughed at me, and continued to eat. With her mouth full, she said, "I assure you, it's no problem. I'm just not used to the top bunk." She set her bowl on the desk and got up, extending a hand for me to shake. "I'm Jackie, sophomore. I'm actually your age, but I skipped ahead."

"Oh, I'm Mary." I shook her hand back. We both then turned to her clock. She sighed, "Can I look at your schedule?" I nodded, and pulled it out of my back pocket. She looked at it, and then looked over her own. "Oh, I see. We both have the same homeroom and first classes. I'm taking a Mythology course first period with you. It's actually really fun. The teacher's Mrs. Romore, the principal. I'm sure you've met her."

"I have. And…what's Mythology like?" She opened the door for me and I followed her out, since I was already dressed. Jade explained, "There's really no curriculum for it. She usually makes up stuff as we go 'cause it's an elective; easy credit, if you ask me." I laughed at that. "But she gets really into this one mythos that comes from a group called the Equalites. She claims no one's heard of them but her. Everyone knows she's just making that one up."

Her voice cracked at the last sentence, almost as if she was hiding something. I ignored it, and asked, "So, where do you guys get food around this place?" She pointed to a nearby building, and replied, "That's where you want to go; that's the MainBuilding. There's where the principal's office is, cafeteria, and most of the main classes."

We walked there, and found the cafeteria rather quickly because of the beautiful smell of food wafting from it. I found out that all our meals would be made here, and that we could have whatever we wanted. I got a pop tart and some yogurt, which was pretty light, even for me. But because I was so late getting up, there were few students there and we had to race all the way to the WestBuilding. That's where Mythology was.

Finishing up my breakfast, I threw whatever was left in a nearby trashcan and me and Jackie both went into the Mythology class. I sat next to her, and noticed a familiar someone next to me. It was Charlie, and he was now wearing a brown shirt and a yellow hoodie over it. He waved at me, and I waved back.

"Alright, students," Principal Romore said, getting everyone's attention as she entered the classroom. "All of you should know who I am, so we can skip introductions. Today, and for most of the early school year, we'll be learning about the Equalites. Now, the Equalites were composed of three different races, so they believed. Now, there were regular people, then there were the mages, and finally, we have the angels…"

_"Five hundred years._

_ "Five._

_ "Stinking._

_ "Hundred._

_ "Years."_

_ "I-it could always be worse…"_

_ "Worse? Name one way how Discord, who's viciously guarding the Elements from us, has thrown nature totally out of whack, and is even mutating poor defenseless ponies out there even more than he has now, could be worse?"_

_ Silence was all Fluttershy could think and say. Rainbow Dash sighed, and opened up one of the soda cans that they had on reserves. She had to admit, there were some perks to having hands. But she was done with the perks of being human and immortal. She knew that being immortal meant living forever, and that meant that Discord would toy with them forever._

_ "See?" RD pointed out her friend's prolonged silence. "This is why I only let you in here. We get weekly visits from Discord….Heaven knows why he still comes. He knows I will protect you mercilessly. You're the first friend I came searching for, and we'll survive this together."_

_ At least, Rainbow hoped they would. They were trapped in Fluttershy's cottage, thanks to her for boarding up the doors. Fluttershy no longer looked after any animals; they were all mutated by Discord, and were vicious, mindless monsters. It was any luck if anypony got in. But boy, did they try._

_ "Hey!" RD turned to the door. She heard an unfamiliar voice, and whoever it was was banging at the door. The rainbow-haired girl stood, and grabbed her only weapon: an old sword. Her wings made her intimidating to some creatures, so she spread them out. She shouted, pointing her sword towards the door, "Show yourself!"_

_ Whatever was on the other side of the door soon did, and busted open the door. Like RD, it was a former pegusi, because it was humanoid and had wings. She had yellow wings, and orange-red hair that looked like fire. She was wearing a yellow tank top, and instead of wearing regular pants, she seemed to be wearing a whole-body uniform that's top half was tied around her waist. Rainbow Dash identified her in an instant. "Sp-Spitfire?"_

_ "Shh!" the Wonderbolt shushed her. "Discord knows my name, but I don't think he spotted me. Or any of the other agents of chaos…" RD knew that's what people called Discord's lackeys. They were those who wanted him freed from stone a long time before, or poor ponies corrupted into working for him. She put her sword down, but still gripped it tight. She asked, "How do I know you're not one of them? And why are you here?"_

_ Spitfire decided it would be best to answer the first question. "Discord has reached Cloudsdale. Some helpful unicorns put an enchantment over it long ago…but five hundred years have really worn it down. Pegusi have been trying to hold off Discord's chaos. Even our team…we need everypony's help. Are you in?" Again, she found the sword at her chest. Rainbow Dash asked, slightly irritated, "Why should I help you? Just so I can give up everything I care about again?"_

_ "RD, we know the story. We know what happened to you. It wasn't your decision; you were at Discord's will. Your friends all were. Come on, RD. Your real hometown needs you. You can even bring 'Shy if you want." Rainbow turned to look at Fluttershy. Tears started to form in both the friends' eyes. RD nervously said, "F-Fluttershy, come with us…it'll be safer…"_

_ "N-No…" her friend weakly said back. "You…go and fight for your cause. I'll be brave. I know I can be…" RD gave a look that said, "you sure?" Fluttershy nodded, and she watched as RD and Spitfire flew off, the Wonderbolt stating, "Hurry! There isn't much time!" Fluttershy, for what seemed like forever, saw the dying landscape outside. Up above and in the distance, she saw Cloudsdale, falling apart and being attacked by a black swarm of probably some of Discord's deadliest creations._

_ After seeing the horrifying sight, she closed the door. She soon got the door re-boarded up, and quickly got back in the corner she was hiding in. She said to herself, "I'll be as brave as I can…and let my spirit die alone…"_

I heard a bell ring, almost sounding far-off. I shot up from sleep soon enough. The class was deserted, except for Mrs. Romore, who was straightening up some books on her desk. She immediately noticed me, and exclaimed, "Oh! You're awake! Don't worry; I'm not disappointed in you. You're mom told me you had narcolepsy. I'll just write you a pass for next class."

"Really?" I sounded a little too ecstatic. My narcolepsy, now that I know what it's called, hasn't gotten in too many bad situations, considering it just appeared recently. But, I'm glad somebody has my back through it. She replied, taking out a purple slip from her desk, "Sure, sure; it's no problem. But I'm sure the next teacher will have a problem: Mrs. Bonaparte. You shouldn't worry, though. Her friend, who helps her run the class, usually helps Mrs. Bon chill out."

"I…really should be heading to this dreaded teacher, then." The principal nodded and smiled at me, and handed me the purple slip that gave me an excuse. I headed on my way to the next class. I went all the way to the MainBuilding, and I had to be quick. I got to the History room, and quickly found a spot next to Charlie fortunately, but unfortunately, I interrupted the entire class.

"Miss Jacobs!" The teacher, who I indentified as Mrs. Bonaparte yelled. "Would you mind telling me why you are late?" Someone swooped in behind me and took my purple slip. I would've thought it was a student; she was a dirty blonde, like me, and had a white streak through her hair. She wore all light teal, tank top and capris matching. She looked at my slip in admiration. "Bon, she's got a slip." She whistled as she looked at the signature. "From the principal too; nice job, kid."

"Lyra…" Mrs. Bonaparte groaned, pulling out a hand. "Give that slip to me. You are very lucky you have Mrs. Romore as your first class." Lyra, since that seemed to be her name, ran to Mrs. Bonaparte's side and slapped the slip into her hand. Class resumed, and I took this time to note the History teacher's appearance. She was a brunette, but her hair was also black to one side. She wore a dark ruby dress suit and I noticed a light yellow shirt poking through.

"Psst!" someone whispered to me. I turned to see Charlie, and he smiled. "Are you okay? You sort of passed out in Mythology."

"I did." I whispered, trying not to interrupt the lesson. "I just found out I have something called narcolepsy. But…what's the History teacher's deal?"

"Oh, she's real nasty. Luckily, she has Lyra-she insists we call her by her first name- to keep her calm. Plus, how do you think somebody as crabby as that became a Mrs.?"

"_Oh._ Well, it makes sense…." Silence surrounded us until I thought of a new subject. "Okay, new question: Why do you, a sophomore, have all the same classes as me, a freshman?"

"I dunno. Ask Principal Romore if you're so curious." I shrugged it off and sat through the rest of the class, taking any notes I could with paper lent from Charlie. I heard the bell ring, and we got out of class. As soon as we were in the hallway, Charlie looked to me, and stated, "You know, you can sit with me and my friends at lunch today. Also, I glanced at you schedule while you were asleep; Looks like this is your free period. Most students use it to do what they want."

That gave me the opportunity to sleep so my thing wouldn't get in the way of classes; or mean teachers, for that matter. I ran to my dorm and leapt on top of the bed, starting to sleep my worries of narcolepsy away.

_"__**Fluttershy…Oh, Fluttershy….it's been a while, hasn't it?**__"_

_ Silence._

_ "__**You know what I've noticed after about five centuries? That you haven't been doing your job.**__"_

_ More silence. Like she would want to talk to him anyway…_

_ "__**Your job is to take care of the animals, right? Maybe I should send some animals to be taken in your care…**__" Now she dreaded she had stayed silent, which is exactly what he wanted. She whimpered as she started to hear growls and roars coming from behind the front door. "__**You've dealt with the manticore before, haven't you? And you should know from what Twilight has told you that the Ursa Minor is just a big ol' softie…**__"_

_ "G-get them away!" the frightened Fluttershy yelled, backing up to the wall. She could hear vicious howls, and could see the beasts clawing at the boarded-up doors and windows. The boards looked like they would fly off at any second._

_"__**You're going to have to choose, Fluttershy…**__" he sing-songed. He flashed in, right next to the frightened Pegasus. He ran a lion paw through her hair, and whispered in her ear, "Give me everything you care about, everything you stand for, and I'll make the monsters go away; it's as simple as that."_

_ Fluttershy hated when he tried to deal with her. He knew she was strong, from the moment she was alone in the labyrinth. The Pegasus stated, her voice calm and keeping its flow, "Discord...I face against you, every day. I don't think those monsters out there could be any worse than you." Discord growled a bit under his breath, the roaring and vicious noises outside disappearing._

_ "Maybe you didn't get the point after all these years; sometimes, good little mares need to be __**PUT IN THEIR PLACE!**__" It all happened so fast; something came through the semi-boarded door and put itself around Fluttershy. She thought it was a unicorn at first, using a force-field around her, but her closest unicorn friends were too far away to help her. She thought maybe RD had come back to save her, but last time she checked, the battle in Cloudsdale was still raging on._

_ Discord flashed out before either of the two could see what had blocked her corruption. Fluttershy opened her eyes and saw…Big Macintosh, to her utmost surprise, groaning as the corruption tried to overtake him. She gasped, "Big Mac!? Wh-what are you doing here?"_

_ "I…I came back for you…" Big Mac groaned, trying to keep strong against his body turning grey. The light faded, and Fluttershy saw blotches of grey all over his body, and from the look on his face, they must've hurt more than a kick to the crotch. She had to be quick. She ran to the kitchen in fury, and picked up the medical kit she kept there. The yellow Pegasus started to put gauze around the areas his skin was grayed, and kissed a spot on his forehead where it was desaturated. She asked, "Do you feel any better?"_

_ "I do now…" he laughed as the desaturated spot she kissed faded away, taking away a great deal of the pain._


	3. Warm Welcomes, Part 3

I got up just as another bell rung. I looked outside to see all the students heading for the MainBuilding. That could only mean one thing. I glanced at the clock just to make sure. It was 12:28, and that meant lunchtime for all the students here. It also meant I had slept through another two periods.

I groaned, and picked up a bowl of instant mac and cheese I found lying around on a desk (hopefully Jackie had already gotten her lunch and had left). I ran out of my dorm and headfirst into the packed cafeteria. Fortunately, I could see Charlie waving at me through the masses. I came over and sat by him.

"Hi," he greeted as soon as I sat down. I put the bowl in my hands on the table, and asked, "So, where's Jackie?"

"She should be coming back with food soon," he answered. "And also, I have a friend I want you to meet." I looked around, and found myself not sitting by any other people there. I asked, "So, why are you sitting all alone? It doesn't seem like someone your type to do…"

"Well yeah, I seem confident, kind of a cool guy, but…I really don't like to draw attention to myself. I just want a close group of friends, really. I don't know really how to explain it, what I want my friendships to be like…" He drifted off, and it would've been silent if there wasn't a whole cafeteria of people around us. Soon, breaking the silence, Jackie and another guy joined us.

"Hello!" the redhead greeted, carrying a bag of fast food in her hand. She sat down next to Charlie, across from me, and opened the bag, pulling out two cheeseburgers for the guys at the table and a fish sandwich for herself. The guy sat next to me, and I observed him while he ate. He had blonde hair, probably dyed, and much like Jackie, he had freckles.

He was also wearing a green hoodie, but his blue eyes that looked like hers were what finally gave me the courage to ask, "So, are you and this guy related?" Jackie finished off the last bite of her fish sandwich and said, "Mary, I'd like you to meet my brother, Joey."

"Nice to meet you," he said, turning to me and extending his hand. I shook it, but I soon left the table to make the mac and cheese. I put it in a nearby microwave, and while I waited, I noticed a strange student looking at me. He had blonde hair, much like Mrs. Romore, only lighter. I could only notice him wearing a brown shirt and a yellow vest, much like Charlie's seemingly signature colors.

He soon noticed I was looking at him, and he soon left. I shrugged it off and grabbed the mac and cheese out of the microwave. Somehow, the principal was right behind me as I turned around. Romore greeted, "Hello, Mary! Are you enjoying your first day here?"

"Yes, I am….and I also noticed a boy spying on me." I pointed to the same spot that the boy was sitting, but found another kid sitting in his place. "Oh, I forgot to mention; he left…sorry…"

"It's okay, but I'm glad to see you enjoying your time here. I try to make all my students happy, but sometimes it can be challenging… So, have you made any friends yet?"

"Yes…" I pointed to Charlie, Jackie and Joey. "They seem to be warming up to me rather nicely."

"Well, be open with them. Being friends with someone means they can sometimes tell how you feel even if you don't tell them." She waved a good-bye to me, and I sat back with them. But my mind still pondered over her words. I tried to hold a good conversation while I ate, but found it a bit hard. The bell rung and I happily went to my next class. It was science class, and I headed to the WestBuilding. I idly listened to the teacher, but my mind was distracted. I lied my head down on a pile of books…

_The hospital was jam-packed with patients, and all were affected by the chaos the outside world was engulfed in. The former unicorn looked out the window of a deserted patient room, and sighed. When the chaos hit, she kept her purple curled mane, but her white horn was replaced by a nice white dress. Her sister was what mattered at the moment, and she tried desperately searching for her._

_ She found her in a cave, but unfortunately, Discord was lingering nearby. Long story short, there was a cave-in, but Rarity helped her sister Sweetie Belle out after days of digging through the rubble. She found the hospital, somehow, and soon after their recovery, they helped out there. _

_ Rarity helped out by making hospital gowns for what seemed to be an ever-growing supply of patients. She even made a nurse's hat for herself and sewed on a badge that showed she was a nurse. She was also in charge of sending people to medicine from Zecora's hut in the Everfree Forest. Medicine was in short supply, because most couldn't survive a trek through the place that Discord had created._

_ "Rarity?" She turned from the window to see what Dr. Barnsworth wanted from her. "We have a new patient." She gasped when another nurse rolled him in on a cart. She recognized him; she sent him out to get some herbs and medicines a week ago. It was a wonder how he made it back. She also noticed his condition quickly. She shortly stated, "Ah, changeling sticky trap; they're black spots of goo that infest on the trapped one's arms and legs, leaving black slime dripping and holes in the skin. How did you even make it back?"_

_ "The…trap was nearby…" he groaned over the pain. "Also…I wanted…to bring this…" In his injured and hole-filled hand, there was a bag. She took it out of his infected hand carefully and smiled. "You're lucky I brought this back. It has all the things I need to heal up most of these wounds." Everyone, even the patient, let out a sigh of relief. Rarity instructed for them to put him on the hospital bed, and bag in her hands, she yelled into the hallway, "Sweetie! Get me some gauze!"_

_ "On it!" Sweetie yelled back. From the stress in her sister's voice, she knew there was no time to lose. She got some gauze that she kept in her pocket (vital for emergencies like these) and ran down the hall to the place where she heard her sister's voice coming from. She handed Rarity the gauze, and the older unicorn prepared the medicine on it right then and there._

_ It was a wonder why Discord never attacked this place. Rarity was thankful that he never arrived, and hoped it was because this was a place where harmony, mercy, and hope thrived. The gauze was now dripping with medicine, and she proceeded to put it on the patient. She said calmly, "Now, this might hurt a little when I put it on…" Despite her calm words, all the other people in the room covered their ears in fear of the patient's painful howling._

"YI!" I screeched as I heard a book slammed next to my ear. I awoke, out of my seat and onto the floor. I saw who slammed it; it was the science teacher, Mrs. Arnett. She sighed, putting the book down, "Mary, I heard you have narcolepsy, and I know my lectures tend to be boring, but please, could you try to stay awake?"

"Yes…sorry," I said, picking myself up. I sighed, "It's just really hard to control sometimes…"

"Don't worry," she reassured me. "You've just found out about it. Maybe if you try and concentrate, you wouldn't fall asleep as often."

"I'll look into it," I replied, leaving the science classroom. Ugh, that sounded awkward. Looking into concentration? Well, I knew people who trained themselves to concentrate. But I had had enough of school today. The clock and deserted science classroom told me that everyone had left for today. The moon had already risen outside.

I decided to walk to a deserted cafeteria, hoping they would serve me whatever food was leftover. Luckily, the lunch lady, who was starting to clean up, was nice enough to make me a sloppy Joe. I slowly ate it, but I my ears heard someone opening one of the double doors. It was Joey, Jackie's brother. He located me in an instant, probably because I was the only one there, and he sat right next to me.

"Hey, Mary, right?" I nodded as he said my name. "Look, I couldn't help but notice you sort of zoned-out when you were chatting with us. Was everything okay?" Though I felt safe around him, I only responded in nods. "You seem shy opening up to people. Listen, I know it may seem rough when you transfer schools, but PerryAcademy is a very loving and safe environment. You just…need to be trusting of others, share in the happy moments and help them out of the sad, selfless to them, very kind and open, and faithfully loyal. That way, you'll always have a good friendship with good people."

He soon left, but his words were still etched inside my head. What did it all mean? I left for my dorm soon after, eating the rest of my sloppy sandwich. I came to the bunk bed and saw Jackie, in a nightgown, sleeping on the bottom bunk. I smiled, and Joey's words came back to me, specifically _kind and open. _It gave me an idea. I looked and saw a pad of sticky notes, a Sharpie marker nearby. I opened the marker, and wrote, _Jackie, thanks to all of you for being happy and trusting of me, and thanks for lunch! –Mary. PS, can I borrow your clothes? I forgot all of mine…_

It was a lot to write on such a tiny post-it, but I managed. I laughed, and stuck it on her forehead. I took off my shoes, giving them a much-needed rest, and climbed up to the top bunk. Now, I was ready for a _real _night's sleep.

_ The dungeons down below Canterlot Castle were never used. There was never much use for them since high-crime never happened in Equestria, let alone the capital. Any major threats were dealt with by the late Princess Celestia, usually involving sending them to the moon. So it was only now that there were prisoners, and it was in their own castle. _

_Prince Fire Dawn felt the hot sun burn on his face. It meant it was morning, and he got up. His mane was a sky blue, and he and his wife were the only two ponies left in Equestria. He looked through the cell to see his wife staring back at him. Of course, he couldn't touch the bars of the cell, as he would get quite a shock if he did._

_ Both of them had the height of the allicorns, those fit to rule Equestria. The only two physical attributes they were missing to make that possible…were the horns and wings. They looked at each other, both longing to be together, their cells only a few measly feet apart. They had decided something; that if they were going to make it through this, they would need a physical bond with each other, just once. Princess Twilight extended her hoof, though she groaned in excruciating pain while doing so. Prince Fire Dawn did so as well, and though they both received a nasty shock, they finally had a bond. They relied on this bond every day, because it gave them hope._

_ "__**Ugh, why must you two go through that pain every day?**__" The two quickly put their hooves to protect them from future harm. They both gave an irritated look to the voice, and groaned. Twilight growled, "Discord! Haven't you put us through enough!?" With a bright flash, the dragonequis appeared. He replied, "I could never put you through enough, since you two have taken my dear princess' place…."_

_ "Look, you! You've put us through this for five centuries!" Fire Dawn blurted out. He knew he shouldn't of, but he was as annoyed around Discord as Twilight was. The creature slithered over to Fire's cage and said, "Oh, says the stallion who used to burst out into songs you thought were about me all the time! In fact, I believe your father wrote a song about me?"_

_ Twilight interjected, "That song was about how much everypony __**HATED **__you!"_

_ "Flattering nonetheless…" Discord looked to Twilight, mock disappointment on his face. "Oh, Twilight, you are much more boring than Celly ever was. Even she had more of a sense of humor than you. Ugh, you're absolutely __**mind-numbingly dull **__compared to her. Your mane doesn't even flow, or taste like cotton candy. Pity…"_

_ "You stay away from her!" Fire Dawn shouted. He would've charged at the beast, but he would've gotten shocked. He would've used his horn, flared out his wings to show his power, but Discord had them somewhere far away. He teased, "Now, Fire, you don't want to add kindle to the flames __**you **__started. After all, it's your temper why I had to take what you cared about. All three things, of course." The dragonequis then turned to Twi. "And of course, there's an extra six for you."_

_ Discord took a good time to flash out. The new princess put her hooves around the bars, and though it shocked her horribly, she yelled through the pain. "Give…__**us…back OUR POWERS…you….SICK, TWISTED, CRUEL, MONSTER!**__" She groaned, looking well-burnt from the electricity that just went through her. She sighed, and fell to the ground. She looked back to her husband, and asked, "What do you think he meant…when he said there was an extra six for me?"_

_ "What do you think?" Fire Dawn questioned. "Come on, he's talking about your best friends. But…after what happened to Spike that leaves only five…" Twilight started to cry. Whether it was that he had reminded her of Spike or of the last person, Fire Dawn never figured out. She replied, "It's Shining…he's talking about Shining…"_

_ "Aw, Twilight….I didn't know you would be this upset over him…"_

_ "Fire, he's my brother! I'd love him 'till the ends of time and space!"_

_ "Celestia knows when that will happen…" Twilight gave him a stern look, and stated, "Don't joke about that. Discord could easily bring that if he wants to."_

_ "I wouldn't give him any ideas if I were you…" The princess did her best to get back to the subject. "I don't even know where Shining is…Last I heard of him, he left for the real world a long, long time ago. Since five hundred years have passed in that world, he's probably…de…d-dea…" She couldn't even bear to say it. Fire took this opportunity to make up for his snarky comments from before._

_ "Twi, you know that's a lie that Discord made up. Shining is out there; somehow, some way…and I believe he's alive, in this world, fighting for everypony he ever loved." The princess was touched by his words, and she sighed, looking out from the small cell window to the world they once knew, "Love will always find a way…"_

I woke up to the sound of an alarm clock ringing in my ear. I groaned and opened my eyes to see a letter, not a sticky note, blocking my view. I read what the letter said in my roomie's voice.

_Dear Mary,_

_ I'm glad to see you've become very happy with us, because true friends want to make their friends happy no matter what! Also, of course you can borrow my clothing! I checked your tags and it seems that everything fits, so you can borrow anything._

_ -Jackie_

_ P.S. I got an alarm clock so you wouldn't sleep through everything!_

Finally, I didn't seem so alone and an outsider.


	4. Chaotic Crusaders

The days went by quickly, and it wasn't long before it was Friday….of next week. Surprisingly, I didn't have much trouble with the narcolepsy for the two weeks. I was leaving the last class for the day, when I ran into Charlie. We had really bonded since we met just two weeks ago.

"Hey, Mary…" he greeted, smiling at me. I asked, "What's up?"

"I'm hanging with some guys from outside of school."

"Am I invited?"

"No…"

"Oh. So, why are you telling me?"

"It's because my parents are out on a date tonight. They're okay with my going out with my friends, but they need somebody to take care of my little sister, Corey. My folks don't trust anybody else but me and my friends…that's why I thought of you."

"R-Really?" I felt hot blush on my cheeks. I don't know why I felt this way. The blush faded away (I don't think he noticed) as he explained, "I find and see you as somebody worthy of trusting. Plus, I think you'd make a terrific babysitter. Don't worry, Corey's not too much to handle. Jackie once took care of her, and she seemed okay. I'll swing around your dorm at seven. Joey can give you a ride, too."

He walked away, and many thoughts went through my head. Why did he choose me? Was this how he selected friends? Nah, that seems shallow, and he has some good friends. I had babysat once before, about a year ago, but I went through a lot to make sure those children got to bed on time. But that was in the past. From my couple of weeks conversing, I had learned that Corey was about seven; not too much that I couldn't handle.

But the fact still remained that he forced this job on me. The thoughts still went through my head. I had somehow arrived back at my dorm with my books, and put them down on the desk in the room. Jackie had a part-time job at the pet store down the block and would be here in a few hours. I could ask her then, but until then, narcolepsy decided to kick in for the first time in almost two weeks.

_The hospital seemed almost peaceful at night. Most of the patients were asleep, and the nurses and doctors were resting in whatever rooms were available. Only a few people who worked there were still awake, and three were running amok through the halls. The three had been best friends for what seemed like forever, and the fact that aging was at a standstill made no difference. They didn't cause as much trouble now that they were teens, but they still had there way of getting into sticky situations._

_ The three all wore nurses' hats, to tell they worked there if anyone confused them with patients. They helped to keep the guests company while they recovered. The redhead of the group, and their leader, helped with bandages, gauze, and any physical injuries. She also helped with any building projects the ever-expanding hospital seemed to have. The pink-haired girl was a sister to one of the nurses, and entertained patients with her singing. The last one, a purple-haired girl, followed along with them at a steady pace on her scooter. Anyone who knew her knew she was a speed-demon, and helped with deliveries if need be._

_ "Hey, AB," the one on her scooter said to the redhead. "Do you think your sister is gonna know where you're at once you come back?" Applebloom laughed, "Come back? Scoots, this place has been Discord-free and I hope it stays that way. Must be something about healing and harmony that wards him away…"_

_ "Yeah, and I'm glad for it too," the pink-haired one said. "That guy was vicious. I remember what he did to my sister."_

_ "And I tried to contact RD that day," Scootaloo added. "She was resting on some small cloud and acted like she couldn't hear me. I miss her so much…"_

_ "Aw, stop talking about how much you miss your folks." Applebloom could feel tears forming in her eyes. "I know where mine are, but Sweetie's the only one who's actually got hers here!" Sweetie defended, "Hey! The only reason me or any of you are here is because my sister found shelter quickly."_

_ "It was your own fault for goin' into that cave on the edge of the Everfree!"_

_ "It was a good shelter for the time being!"_

_ "Well, it would've been an even better shelter if Discord hadn't found you two!" Scootaloo stopped and turned to them._

_ "Guys!"_

_ "What?" The arguing human and unicorn turned to look at their friend. The Pegasus with the wilted wings stated, "You guys are fighting again. Don't you think disharmony like that will attract Discord?" AB stepped foreword and sighed, "You're right, Scoots. We shouldn't be fighting, especially in as drastic a-times as these. We should stay friends until the chaos is all gone, until the world is at harmony once again, and until everything is back to normal."_

_ "Maybe we should find a vacant room for the night," Sweetie Belle suggested. The other two nodded, and began their search for a nice place to stay. They searched a good twenty rooms before finding a place where nopony was sleeping, and anyone they disturbed in their sleep, they quickly apologized to. _

_ There was one bed, which they soon made into a king-size by adding two cots next to it. Applebloom got the middle, while Scootaloo got the left and Sweetie the right. Scootaloo abandon her worn scooter to the floor and jumped into the cot. Applebloom got comfy in the actual bed and as soon as she did, asked, "Hey, Sweetie, what was that one song you sang to some of the patients last week? The one to spread hope?"_

_ "Oh, I remember that one," Sweetie replied as she got into her cot. "Do you guys want me to sing it to help you all get to sleep?" They nodded, and she cleared her throat and sang beautifully:_

_ "_Elements, gleam and glow,

Let your power shine,

Make the clock reverse

Bring back what once was mine,

Heal what has been hurt,

Change Discord's design,

Save what has been lost,

Bring back what once was mine…" _All three laid their tired heads on one another, but they knew the song wasn't over. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were fast asleep when Applebloom uttered the final verse, "What once was mine…"_

I awoke to the sound of a car alarm. I heard someone groan, "Stupid car alarm!" and it stopped. I got up and looked at the alarm clock. It showed with its two arms that it was 6:08, and Jackie should be…

"Oh, hey." She was with me in the room, sitting over at the desk. "I wondered when you'd be awake. You know Charlie put you in charge of babysitting his sister tonight? I'm thrilled for you!" I sighed, "I'm glad; I'm not so thrilled for myself. I don't know how to babysit. Why did he even pick me?"

"I don't know." She shrugged. "Maybe he trusts you after only two weeks. That's a new record for him. He's usually not this open."

"That's nice…for him. So, what's babysitting his sister like?"

"Oh, she's really good, though you might have to sit through a few episodes of _My Little Pony_."

"Really? She's seven, and she still watches that?"

"Yeah, but it's not that bad. I must admit, it could've been worse. I've heard things that there are guys who like it and watch it, and most of them are my brother's age!"

"Well….I'm sure they're very happy, then." I tried to say and sound accepting. It almost sounded like she was implying her brother was one of them. Whether or not she was right, I decided not to ask or dwell on it. We both shared a microwave meal for dinner and soon after that, headed to Charlie's house in Joey's van. When we got there, Charlie was there, but strangely, his parents weren't.

"I'm sorry," he automatically stated when I came to the door, "my parents left once I told them I'd put Corey in good hands. They knew I was going out with some friends, but…. even my parents seem a bit too trusting of people."

"Including yourself?" I questioned. "I think you're overreacting. Maybe you've gained their trust, and that's a good thing." My lecture to him was cut short by the screams inside of "BABY-SIIITTER!" A young girl with light brown hair soon came next to Charlie in the doorway. She asked, pointing to me, "Is this my new babysitter?"

"Yes," Charlie smiled at me, "and she'll make sure you're in bed by ten, alright?" I nodded as soon as he looked back up at me. We soon switched positions, and I was standing next to Corey inside the house, while Charlie started to walk away. "My buddies should be here shortly. Corey knows where all the emergency stuff is. Also, emergency phone numbers are posted on the kitchen bulletin board. See you!"

His sister and I quickly waved good-bye. I looked to Corey, and she had an ecstatic look on her face. She squealed, "We're gonna have so much fun!" I asked, a little nervous, "How do you know that?"

"Because I _always_ have fun when Charlie's friends babysit!" Oh, great. They left precedents. She took my hand and dragged me to the couch. She had the television on mute, but it looked like it was on a station called The Hub. Jackie warned me over dinner that this was the channel with ponies on it. Corey explained, "This is a new episode. I've been waiting a long time for this, and it's finally here! This one features the Cutie Mark Crusaders. I know you probably don't care, but do you wanna watch it with me?"

"Sure," I half-sighed, half-groaned. I watched as three, somehow familiar-looking, small ponies appeared on screen. My mind drifted off…

_ Three teenagers woke up to see the sun shining brightly through the window. They all felt it on their faces, and it burned as soon as they opened their eyes. They moaned from the pain, and Applebloom was quick to tell the one on her right, "Sweetie, close the blinds…" They all soon got up, and jumping out of bed, Sweetie Belle asked, "This is the west wing, right?"_

_ "Yeah," Scootaloo answered, getting back on her scooter and putting up her hand to see through the sun's intense rays._

_ "So why is the sun rising in this direction?"_

_ "Why do you think?" Her other two friends deadpanned. Applebloom yawned, "Only three hours of sleep. I think that's better than last week." Sweetie Belle soon realized what they were talking about and then closed the blinds. Scootaloo looked away from the now-covered-up window and said, "We need to get something to eat."_

_ "Alright," Applebloom agreed. "Maybe there's a vending machine or something near…" She then noticed that Scoots was staring into space. "Scootaloo, what are you gawking at?"_

_ "Foreign currency…" she awed, and the other two soon looked in her direction. They saw what they identified as a dollar bill on the floor. They normally used bits, but after Discord's return, they found this strange currency appearing more often than ever. The best part about it was they fit perfectly to the new slots that were on vending machines. _

_ They all looked at each other, and then sprang for it. They all ran for the dollar, which unfortunately caught a nearby breeze and blew away. The breeze carried it far, and the three pushed their way through an already-bustling hospital. Scootaloo, on her scooter, sped past the two and grabbed the dollar in her hands. She looked at it and her friends in triumph…until she and they realized just where they were._

_ They were in a fully-abandoned part of the hospital, which was very strange, as the hospital seemed overflowing with patients. It might've been the basement, because the only source of light was a flickering-out panel overhead. Because five long centuries had taken its toll, the place seemed to be…overgrown. There were vines coming out of places, and because of the strange feeling the place gave off, none of the girls spoke._

_ "Well, it seems I've lured you this far…" A voice they all dreaded was the first to speak. Scootaloo felt the dollar slip out of her hand. She saw a being come out of the shadows, and they all instantly recognized him. Discord had a fishing rod in his hands, and the dollar was on it. The three girls took a step foreword. Sweetie was the first to ask, "Why are you here, Discord?!"_

_ "This is the only part of the hospital where chaos is rampant," he explained. "This place has grown and decayed while everything else above is alive and well. Sometimes, I come down here…and now I have company."_

_ "Why'd you bring us down here, Discord?" Applebloom, like everyone else in Equestria, was tired of his talk. The dragonequis looked at a vine growing on the walls of the decaying basement. He pulled it away with his lion paw, and the three girls gasped. He growled, "It reminds me of the garden I spent too much time in. And the one that you three visited when you were just fillies…"_

_ The memories came flooding back for all of them. They had gone to the Canterlot Sculpture Garden for a field trip, but they remembered it as the first time they had a fight. They had fought…over what Discord stood for; confusion, chaos, or evil. Only one of them was truly right, but all of them knew now he stood for all three. Scootaloo, after immediately having a flashback, asked, "What does that have to do with anything?"_

_ The manipulative beast countered with another question. "Have you girls ever wondered how I first escaped, after a thousand years?" Despite their knowledge that he was evil, confusing, and chaotic, they all nodded. He smiled, and almost laughed, "Let me tell you a little story…"_

I shot awake as soon as the episode was over. The channel's promos were shown over the end credits, and Corey turned it off. She turned to me and asked, "Are you okay? You sort of passed out on the couch there…you didn't even look tired or bored…"

"I have this thing that makes me fall asleep at the most random times," I explained to her. She didn't seem to get it, but she shrugged it off, and got up out of her seat. "What are you doing, Corey?"

"I'm going to go to bed a little early," she said. "I'm really tired tonight…" I nodded in agreement; now this was a girl who seemed mature for her age. I came upstairs and made sure she brushed her teeth, got night-clothes, and went to bed. After I made sure she was asleep, I waited for somebody to come home. I decided to watch television downstairs in the meantime.

After about an hour of watching TV, I heard a scream come from upstairs. I ran as soon as I heard it. It came from Corey's room (obviously, she was the only one in the house besides me) and I saw her with a horrified look on her face, hiding under her covers in a fetal position.

"What's wrong? Are you okay? Did you hurt something?" Her head poked out of the covers and she pointed a quavering finger to the closet, which wasn't far away. She whimpered, "There was something in there!" I walked over to the closet and opened it. There was nothing suspicious there, unless you call a boatload of plushies suspicious. She stated, "Well, it ran back in there when it heard you, but there was a bright flash. Maybe it teleported somewhere else!"

_Great, _I thought, _I found something that balanced out her maturity. _I looked back to her, and asked, "What did this 'monster' even look like?" This is where she went into details. "It had mostly goat features on its head, but had a long, snake-like body, and its tail was that of a dragon, with pointy spikes at the end. It had two claws, and hoofed back-legs."

"Now, does something like that sound like it exists in real life?" I sat down on the bed next to her.  
"Well, no…" she doubted, "but it does sound like the one thing from My Little Pony Charlie won't let me watch." I was stunned by her words, but still asked her, "What won't he let you watch?"

"Oh, he says there's some creature from this one episode he doesn't want me watching. I think he said he looked it up online. I think it was called a 'drocsid.'" Okay, she was just making stuff up now. I sighed, "Don't worry. This thing isn't real, and it won't hurt you, I promise." Though she didn't look reassured by my words, I still got up from the bed and walked away.

"Mary?" she called out my name. I turned from the door and asked, slightly annoyed, "What is it, Corey?"

"Can you spend the night with me?" I sighed, knowing that Charlie would kill me if I didn't do this. I sat down on one side of the bed, and she scooted over to make room for me. I hugged her, and replied, "I will spend the night and keep you safe from this monster. I promise." She turned back over, and I closed my eyes as I lay on top of the covers.

_ Rarity went to the basement because she was getting noise complaints; ones that were first of dark, ominous voices, but soon heard of moaning and whining noises. She would've been sent down here sooner, but like all nurses and doctors there, she was busy handling other things. She was soon to find the source of the noises: three sniffling and sobbing teenage girls, all of whom she recognized. She immediately ran over to Sweetie Belle, and hugged her, which was hard to do as she was in-between Apple Bloom and Scootaloo._

_ "Oh, Sweetie, why are you so sad?" Rarity asked, almost tearing up herself. Sweetie sniffled, wiping away her tears, "My friends and I just found out….we were the ones who released Discord the first time!"_

_ "Oh…." She then realized how this happened. Rarity had heard from her parents that Sweetie had gotten in her very first fight. She didn't know how it happened, but she knew that days afterword, Discord's name had become known. "Well, who told you that anyway?"_

_ "The one who knows it better than any of us: Discord!" The girls began to cry again. For once, Rarity got tired of whining. She defended, "Well, how do you know he's not lying? That's something he'd do, you know."_

_ "Rarity, the events are so close together, and so somewhat connected, there's no way they can be a coincidence!" Her sister held a good point, and good logic. Rarity would have to give her that, but she didn't want the girls to feel guilty about something that happened so long ago. She told the girls, "Settle down, now…" and they all knew it was time to listen to her._

_ "Girls….I know this is a shock for all of you to find out about this….terrible thing that you have done. But the thing is…we've all done things that are bad, and ponies may not forgive us, but some do. And if you're not forgiven, remember this…that without the bad, we wouldn't truly appreciate the good. There's always a positive look for things…and no matter what…because we are sisters, I forgive you."_

_ The three girls all hugged Rarity. Apple Bloom said, for everypony, "Thanks, sis—I mean, Rarity…"_

_ "You really miss AJ, don't you?" Scootaloo asked. Rarity said, "Don't worry; I miss them, too…."_

I woke up to a blaring alarm. It clicked off, and I opened my eyes to see Corey, Charlie's little sister, turn it off. She smiled, and said, "Good morning! You know, I would've guessed Charlie would've paid you by now…" Charlie! That's right! He needed to pay me. I groaned under my breath, "What child sets an alarm on the weekend?" and went off in search of Charlie or his parents.

I saw Charlie had been woken by the alarm. He was standing out in the hall, wearing yellow pajamas. He looked at me for a minute, and walked to me. He apologized, "I'm sorry. I should've told you; my parents weren't on a date. They were taking a weekend married couples retreat. That means that I have to pay you."

"R-really?" I echoed my words and blush from talking to him yesterday. He smiled. "Yep. I'll get you ten bucks and another five bucks for your trouble." Soon enough, I had fifteen bucks in my hands. Charlie was dressed and at the door to say good-bye. He had called up Joey to drive me back. As I opened the front door, I gasped, "Oh! One more thing before I leave. Corey's having some nightmares about this monster in her closet. Talk to her about it?"

"Okay," he quickly stated, and I soon got into Joey's car. Somehow, even though it was a quick good-bye, I knew he'd always stay by his sister.


	5. Dreaded Decisions

It was about a week after my job babysitting Charlie's sister. Over the week, I managed to have no problems with my narcolepsy. It was just after lunch, and that meant it was time for history class. As we studied pilgrims in our books, Charlie leaned over to me and whispered, "Hey! This reminds me! Do you wanna watch _Doctor Who _with me tonight?"

"What's that?" I whispered back, trying not to catch Mrs. Bonaparte's attention. He explained, "It's this cool series where this humanoid alien explores the universe."

"Oh, cool!"

"Mister Williams!" I heard Mrs. Bonaparte shout to us. "I understand why you enjoy British television programs, and so do Lyra and I, but can you please focus on the lesson!?" We stayed silent for the rest of class; we didn't even try to pass notes to each other. Once the class was over, Jackie came over to me and Charlie in the hallways. "What was that all about?"

"We were talking about watching the latest episode of _Doctor Who_," Charlie explained.

"Cool! You know Joey loves that show, and I know a lot about it from him. Mind if I come over?" He paused for a second, which made me suspicious, but he soon replied, "Sure, I'm sure Joey would really enjoy it." I tried to jump back into the conversation. "So, when is it?"

"At eight o'clock," Charlie answered. "I'll have Joey swing by you guys' dorm and pick you up." He left, and Jackie and I retreated back to our dorms for the evening where we waited for Joey to come over. We decided to chat in the meantime. I relaxed on the bottom bunk while Jackie spun in her swivel chair.

"So, what's this show about anyway?"

"Like I overheard Charlie say, it's about a humanoid alien and his adventures around the universe?"

"What exactly did he mean by 'humanoid'?"

"Well, it means he looks human. As in, when they first made this show, they didn't have enough money for CG."

"Ha! Yeah…."

"You're going to enjoy it. If Principal Romore's stories in Mythology kept you entertained….Mary? Are you _okay? Mary…?"_

_The house in Ponyville is where he stayed between his adventures. Besides the TARDIS, it was his second home. But…he was now starting to regret his choice. The Doctor and his companion, Derpy, were surrounded by Daleks, once again. Though to say these were the normal Daleks they were up against was a slouch. And since the Doctor's sonic screwdriver was back in the TARDIS….yeah, they were in trouble._

_ "Derpy, get behind me," the Doctor ordered of his companion. The blonde whimpered, "Doctor…no…."_

_ "Derpy, don't make this hard. We've both made sacrifices for each other. Now, you're going to have to let me make another sacrifice for you." The grey Pegasus nodded nervously. She got behind the Doctor, and watched in horror as he got blasted in the chest. Luckily, it was only once, and the "Daleks" disappeared as soon as they came._

_ "Doctor!" She gasped as he groaned and doubled over in pain. She quickly asked, "Are you okay? Should I get the kids in here? Maybe they could help you with their magic! Dinky's been practicing!" He groaned, "Just get me to the TARDIS…" She nodded, and pulled him onto her back._

_ She carefully spread out her wings to make sure she could support him, and headed into the house's basement. There was where the TARDIS was and where she knew the Doctor would find relief. She knew he left it open when it was parked, and she opened it quickly. She set the Doctor near the core of the massive inside._

_ "Derpy…please leave…" he said weakly. Derpy insisted, "Doctor…I'd never leave your side."_

_ "Derpy, when I told you to leave…." he didn't even try to raise his voice at her, "leave for the real world. Take Dinky with you. I promise she'll be safe." She saw the sincerity in his eyes, and she nodded, although tears started to form in her eyes. She left him to heal alone, but the Doctor knew he shouldn't be alone. He hated to make her sad at this time, especially when he knew that monster was lurking about…_

_ "__**Leaving the girl in your hour of need? So unlike you, Doctor.**__" He also knew the monster had access to the TARDIS. The Doctor struggled to stand up, but he fell back to the floor. He growled, "Discord…leave Derpy alone…"_

_ "__**Actually, I'm much more interested with you…**__"_

I woke up to see two faces, both staring at me with blue, cat-like eyes. I almost jumped out of my seat when I saw them. Joey greeted me first, "Hello, sleepy-head! Enjoy being knocked-out by narcolepsy?"

"Are you okay?" Jackie asked. "You passed out all of a sudden, and I didn't know what to do!"

"It's okay, sis." Joey assured her. "She just has something that makes her conk out at random times. She seems okay. You are okay, right?" I nodded to show I was fine. "Alright, then. Let's get going; Charlie's probably worried we weren't gonna show." I followed them out silently. It was strange, because, Joey, who usually stayed silent, was talking more, and I, who was chatty, was talking less.

After about thirty minutes of driving, we pulled up into Charlie's driveway. Jackie and I followed Joey to the door. He knocked, and soon enough, Charlie answered. Joey said, "Sorry we're a little late. Mary knocked out before we came."

"It's okay," he insisted as Joey walked in. Jackie went in before me, and suddenly, I locked eyes with Charlie. I don't know why, but he seemed lost in mine, and almost… breathless. It only lasted a second, but he warmed up enough to say, "Corey's upstairs if you want to see her."

"It's okay…." We both walked over to the couch and sat down. "Did you talk to Corey about the nightmares?"

"I've made sure that nothing's getting into her closet…" We both snickered. "I've slept in her room for the past few nights to make sure she's safe. She seems to be fine when I sleep with her. Maybe the monster's afraid of me…" Suddenly, theme music was heard. We both turned our attention to the television. "Oh, look! The show's starting!" I watched the show idly, and my mind was soon to drift off. I didn't want to be rude, but I couldn't just ignore my narcolepsy…

_"__**So, Doctor, why haven't we kept in touch? I've met you in the past, twice; after my trial, and another right smack-dab in the middle of my first rule…**__" The Doctor remembered each of those adventures well, because he knew how dangerous the latter had been, both for him and Derpy. The Doctor, still in pain on the floor, asked, "Why are you telling me this? And just as I'm about to die…."_

_ "__**Regenerate, Doctor, regenerate,**__" Discord corrected. "__**But everything will change once you do. Why do you keep holding it off? It could be MUCH more painful for you if you do…**__" The dragonequis, despite not being in the room, was able to send a scorching pain through the Doctor's body. He screamed, despite going through even worse pain when he regenerated._

_ "You….you're a monster….even worse than all the monsters I've seen in my life…."_

_ "__**Well, it's nice to hear such a complement, especially coming from you…but all of that will change once you regenerate. I'm going to affect how it happens, and make sure you become a servant to me…**__"_

_ "That will never happen, Discord. Even you, the spirit of chaos and disharmony, cannot affect the outcome of my regeneration."_

_ "__**You'd be surprised what I'm capable of…in fact…**__" A clock from outside was heard inside the TARDIS. It struck many times, but that was of no importance. The Doctor howled with pain as he regenerated, and Discord's maniacal laughter coincided with it. The Doctor's body was engulfed in gold light, as the clock outside's chiming ended, signaling the eleventh hour._

"Aw come on! It's a cliff-hanger?!"

"Great! That means we have to wait another week!" I woke up to the sounds of groans and growls from my friends as the end credits of the show rolled down the screen. Charlie looked the most disappointed. Having a vague idea of what was going on, I tried to comfort him. "It's okay….we can always look the next episode up on the Internet. It always seems to have spoilers."

With that said, he looked a bit relieved, and Jackie and Joey did as well. The two siblings and I all went to the campus of PerryAcademy. Jackie and I went back to our rooms, and I got top bunk, Jackie got bottom bunk. I asked, "So how was the episode? I passed out before the opening was even over."

"It was good. But…since you passed out, Charlie was worried about you. I think he cares about you more than you think he does."

"So do a lot of people…."

_Twilight sat bored in her jail cell, and saw that her husband was resting in his cell across from hers. She noticed his hoof was just near enough to the bars that she could reach it if she tried. The princess of course, knew that the bars would electrocute her, and she only did it once a day to make sure their bond would keep forever. She already did it once, but it didn't feel…like enough._

_ Bravely, she slid the tip of her hoof between the bars, and somehow…she didn't get shocked. She looked at her hoof in astonishment. How did she not get electrocuted? She heard a voice laugh, "Well, the Sonic seems to be working." She looked to her right to see in an empty cell, a blue police call box. Outside of the cell stood a stallion, whose neat brown hair and chestnut coat were…grayed._

_ "Doctor!" she gasped, and he came up to the bars to hug her. She then noted his appearance. "Everything about you is familiar, but your color's a bit…off."_

_ "I know," he said sheepishly. "I regenerated, and Discord tried to affect the outcome of it. All that it did was make my coat a bit…desaturated."_

_ "Yep," Twilight agreed. "No matter what he does to ponies, you are and always will be the Doctor. No one can change that."_

_ "I also want you to remember that good will always triumph over bad. The things that are happening right now are fixed in time, but…that doesn't mean that it will be this way forever. I promise you."_

_ "Thanks for taking away the shock spell on these bars."_

_ "You're welcome. Originally, I was going to skip over this time period, but somepony very close to you in the future convinced me to come." He was about to step back into the TARDIS when Twi exclaimed, "Wait! Who is it!? Is it Pinkie? You know she knows about you." He chuckled, "Only time will tell…" and hopped back into the police box. It faded away to another time, and as it did, Princess Twilight decided that whoever sent the Doctor there, she would have to thank._

I woke up early for Saturday, probably because I did so the day before. I learned that we didn't have classes during the weekend, and most people left their dorms to visit their families at that time. Jackie, who was below me, was still asleep. I said to her, "Jackie, it's time to get up…"

"Five more minutes…." she groaned, still half-asleep. I sighed, and decided I shouldn't wake her. Of course, the only reason I wanted her up was to get the mail. The mail was delivered here only on Saturdays, and every week before, Jackie had gotten it. I figured she wouldn't mind if I did it for her today.

I knew the mail slots were in the MainBuilding, next to the Principal's Office. I ran to the place, and when I almost got there, I bumped into somebody else. She was blonde, with golden eyes and wearing a mail carrier's outfit. She dropped letters she was holding, and I exclaimed, "Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry! I didn't see where I was going, and-!"  
"No, no, it's okay," she interrupted my plea. "I'm usually this clumsy on my own. I just got a job, and…I think I missed a few mail slots. Do you know where these letters go?" She picked up the letters that had fallen out of her hand, and gave them to me. I looked them over, and noticed, "These are all for my dorm."

"Oh, well I guess I'm lucky then!"

"Bye!" I quickly waved to her, running to the cafeteria for a much-needed breakfast.

_She's the one, Doctor…_

_ Somepony is going to save us after all…_


	6. An Heir to the Throne

After a long and uneventful weekend, I started out the week on a high-note; no random bouts of narcolepsy, and plenty of rest and relaxation over the weekend. Jackie woke me up before the alarm even went off, and we both had breakfast in the cafeteria with Joey and Charlie.

Now, after a nice breakfast, we all headed to Miss Romore's class, expecting her to ramble on about some place that didn't even exist. Instead, she hit us hard when she said, "Alright, students, today, I'm assigning a project over what you've learned about the Equalites. I'll write some topics on the board, and you can write an essay on the one you picked." The whole class groaned in unison as the principal wrote topics down on the board.

"Heh, don't worry," Charlie chuckled. "She always lets us team up and you can do it with me…."

"And just for saying that," Romore pointed with her chalk, "you all can do it separately, and I'm hoping for an A-grade paper from you, Mister Williams."

"But…this is a pass-fail course!"

"Then I will flunk you if you don't hand in that essay." Charlie groaned, and buried his head in his hands. Romore had a list of subjects on the board and looked to me. "Mary, what topic do you want?" I looked to see what topics were left, and found one that I actually had some notes on.

"'Equilite Government'?" Romore looked pleased with my decision.

"That's a good topic, Mary. In fact, I think it's one of the topics I didn't see you sleep through." There was quiet laughter from everyone around me. After that, the class returned to normal, and proceeded normally. After that, I sat next to Jackie in Mrs. Bonaparte's class, and lucky for me, she was sick and Lyra was substituting.

"Jackie," I whispered to her, "where am I gonna find anything on something completely made up?"

"Don't worry, Mary; everyone who ever had her has been working on an Internet site filled with all the information she's given on the 'Equalites'." She wrote me the address of the site, and as soon as I had my break time, I looked it up on Jackie's new laptop. The site had all the information I needed to start a report, and I decided to do so.

_The Equalites had society in three separate groups: the angels, who were believed to have wings, the Unicron, who were said to have magical abilities, and the regular humans. The three lived separated until a terrible storm came over their land. The crops the human grew wilted, and both blamed the angels, who supposedly had control of the weather._

_ The leaders of each group met, and all decided that they must go searching for a new land, one that would suit the needs of their race. They finally found an area that was lush and would provide, but all the leaders had decided on the same area. Their bitter hatred grew, and the storm came to the area, forcing the leaders inside a cave. They thought they would freeze to death, but it wasn't long before the Unicron princess realized that a group of Windigos was what caused the storm, and the leaders' hatred of each other fed on it._

_ They hoped for each other, and that they would all survive, and soon, by their new Fire of Friendship, they forced the Windigos away. Their people soon moved to the lush land, and they all came together to form the Equalites. Unfortunately, they needed only one leader. Fortunately, __**two **__answered the call. They became Princess Palutena and Prince Plutonus. They ruled for many good years until an evil tyrant named Discord overthrew them both. It was said that he threw the Equalites into never-ending strife, but no one knew of his motives._

_ It took over half a century, but two brave sisters, who wielded the same Fire of Friendship that kept the three original leaders alive, defeated Discord and became the rulers of the Equalites. It is said that the youngest sister went mad with power and the eldest kept her in chains until her death._

_ The eldest sister was soon to select an heir, who was her student for a long time. The student took the crown as soon as her teacher had died, and she ruled fair and just. But the Equalites died off, waiting for an heir to the throne._

_"It's been a long time…"_

_ "Huh? What? Who is this? Wait…that voice…."_

_ "Yes. It's been about 2,000 years since we last spoke. Oh, how I've missed you."_

_ "But…I sent a letter to you over 500 years ago!"_

_ "You know how the Order is. We get a ton of letters, each processed through a million times over. Somehow, when I tried to reach this line before, it gave me a thing that said you were either 'out of service area' or 'disconnected', whatever that means."_

_ "Obviously, you've never used a phone."_

_ "A what?"_

_"Nevermind; forget I even mentioned it. Why did my dear, dear sister want to speak to me? I thought she never liked me…"_

_ "I thought you needed me, but before I ask why, I must ask another question."_

_ "Let me guess: Why contact you? Because nopony in this place I was banished to cares about me. They see me as a tyrant….with good reason."_

_ "Started a revolution? The one you meant for here?"_

_ "You know it. But…there have been bumps along the path, called the Elements of Harmony."_

_ "I'm guessing the opposite of chaos itself."_

_ "They have turned me to stone; not once, not twice, but thrice! Their wielders have only been carried to another generation only once…but I made sure to split the bonds in the second one. There's no possible way they can defeat me now; Equestria has become a dangerous world outside their doorsteps."_

_ "It seems you've definitely one-upped your jokes and pranks from when we were children. Alright, back to my first question: why did you summon me so many years ago?"_

_ "I know the dragonequi hold a long life, mostly from the dragon parts of us."_

_ "Yes, thank you, captain Obvious. Is this what you contacted me about; a biology lesson?"_

_ "No. I realized like all creatures, we die off someday. And I will die someday; that's why if I want to keep my reign of chaos eternal, I need somepony to carry on the throne. I need an heir."_

_ "So…you want me to be the heir?"_

_ "No, I want you to carry him…or her."_

_ "What makes you think I will?"_

_ "Because I know you are already here."_

_"Gah! H-How did you know?"_

_ "Because of our magical signature, and how powerful you are, I can know if you step one claw into my kingdom. Plus, I can also tell when someone's disarmed my booby traps. I must say, you put on quite a show."_

_ "The Order has let me out on the grounds that you're still alive, and…word has finally reached of your rule."_

_ "So when are you going back?"_

_ "Whenever you're getting stoned again."_

_"Don't joke about that; you have my promise of safety for the next nine months."_

_ "So I'm going to have to carry a child for you? Why couldn't you get some pony to do it for you?"_

_ "A, I'd give myself away if I disguised as….well, anything. B, I'm not very…attractive, as you know with my dating experience back home. You however, are attractive, and could disguise yourself as a human without drawing much attention."_

_ "Plus, everypony here and back home hates you."_

_ "….shut up, Deception."_

I awoke to the lunch bell sounding off, seeing my paper littered with a bunch of _Q_s and then a random mess of letters. I saw Jackie, looking to find that I had fallen out of my seat. She asked, "Are you okay? Maybe I should've brought you to the bed…"

"Nah," I answered. "I would've hurt myself and banged my head against the top." She laughed, and offered me some of her lunch. We both ate half a turkey sandwich, and when done with lunch, she pointed over to the computer. "Is your report done?"

"Yep. Well, except for the part where I have to delete all the stuff I did while I was asleep."

"You know, the lunch period is another free time. If the principal's in her office, or around the school, you can give it to her." I nodded, and finding a link to the printer downstairs, printed off my paper. I walked to the principal's office, but not before the bell rung in my ear! I screamed, and the first person to hear my cry was Mrs. Romore.

"Mary, are you alright?" She asked. I looked to her, and stammered, "I-I'm fine, Principal Romore. I just finished my paper early and wanted to turn it in to you." I gave the paper to her, and she scanned over it. Not making any marks, she explained, "This is very good work, Mary. It's missing a few things…but it's presentable."

"What do you mean, 'missing a few things'? I can put them in so I won't get a bad grade…" She looked almost remorsefully at the paper, but sighed, "It's okay. It won't affect your grade on the assignment. Anyway, you should be getting to your next class." She took a purple slip out of her pocket, wrote something on it, and put it into my hands. "Don't worry. I'm sure your next teacher will let you get by."

I nodded, and headed to my next class, which was Geometry. I sat next to Jackie and she giggled. I asked, "What's so funny?"

"Oh, I probably should tell you. Charlie was worried over where you were all of lunch. He seems to talk about you a lot behind your back."

"You mean bad things?"

"No; it's actually a lot of nice things, and of course, a lot of groaning and whining over where you were." We went quiet as the Geometry lesson ragged on, but this left me with something on my mind: was Charlie Williams, who I had only known for about a month now, have a crush on me?


	7. Tough Love, Part One

_I couldn't believe it_, I thought to myself as I walked through the hallway to my next class. _Charlie has a crush on me! Wait, Jackie never specifically said "crush." What if I accidentally say he does and he gets mad at me for thinking that way? Or even worse, what if he does like me? No one has ever liked me like that, save for that weirdo in 5__th__ Grade. But this is much worse? What if he wants something serious? I've never had anyone like me like that, let alone a serious relationshi-!_

I accidentally crash into somebody, and their papers go everywhere. I said quickly, "Oh, I'm so sorry! Let me just help you with tho-!" We both reached over for the exact same paper. He was a brunette, and he was wearing brown uniform sweater-vest over a yellow top. Somehow, Charlie had found me.

"Hey," he greeted, no knowledge of what I had just discovered last class. "Mary, where are you going in such a hurry?"

"Well, I-!" I couldn't just blow off what I heard. I needed to tell him and get the truth out; if he liked me or not. I fearlessly asked, "I'm just nervous because I heard that you like me. It's just a rumor, but I wanted to know if it's true." He stared at me for what seemed like forever, but it was only a moment of silence. Knowing he couldn't get out of not answering, he sighed, "It's true; I like you. I…I don't blush or get nervous like most guys are around their crushes; it's who I am."

"Well, I must admit, you did a good job of hiding it, until Jackie told me how you were obsessing over me at lunch!"

"Yeah, I was. Joey seemed a bit concerned by that. Did…Jackie actually tell you about my crush? Because I thought I covered my tracks pretty well."

"No, I just suspected. Just…the way she said it…it gave me a feeling." We both laughed, but Charlie turned to a nearby clock and stated, "Well…we should be heading to class." I ran past him, but he shouted, "Wait! Before I go," I turned around. "There's something I need to ask you."

"Shoot." I don't know whether I was telling him to do so or I was mad at myself for not getting out of it.

"Would you…like to go out on a date sometime?" There was something desperately in me that wanted to say "no," but I knew I would break his heart if I did say it. I sighed a little, but I answered, "Sure, why not?" He smiled, and replied, "I'll pick you up on Friday at eight. Sound good?"

I nodded, and he went off to his next class. I did as well, but for the rest of the day, I was distracted. I had never been on a date, nor often gone out with friends. I needed to figure out what I should do, or what he wanted to do. Nothing too bad, I hope. I went to dinner and bed with a lot hanging on my shoulders. I barely spoke to Jackie, which probably made her more suspicious than ever. I went to bed with the feeling of regret hanging over my head, and asking myself, _Why did I have to fall in love?_

_Oh, why did you have to force me into love? Deception thought as she came to the wooded area of a small town called Raini Valley. Well, it seemed to be half woods, half random-stumps. She was in a human disguise. Her wavy white hair was still the same, her eyes as well. Her chaotic clothes she changed into were replaced with a collared blue blouse, a brown jacket, and a brown skirt. Hopefully, the guy Discord had "set her up with" would not notice the fact that her ears were pointy._

_ She sighed, and decided to do what he wanted her to do. After all, he was family. She mustered up as many deceit and lies she could to cover her tracks. Now, she had to find the man who fate (or rather, Discord) had set her up with. She noticed a tall man, skinny in build, and was wearing a hat to protect his black hair from the hot sun. His clothes, long pants, boots, and a vest, were all a bluish-grey. His shirt, however, was white. She gasped, and thought, you picked the best for me, brother._

_ She looked at him, and ran over to him, trying to look as desperate as possible. He spotted her, and stopped chopping down the tree he was chopping. As soon as she ran to his side, he asked, "What's wrong?" She panted a few times and said with desperation, "Discord destroyed my house! I heard you can help me! You…can, right?"_

_ "Of course!" he laughed. "I've built a few houses here and there." He set down the axe, and put his work gloves down. He began to walk, and Deception followed. He explained, "You see, ever since Discord's reign began a while back, I started to notice these trees kept springing up around the area. Later, ponies needed houses because Discord kept doing things to them, and I decided, 'Yeah, sure.' It is my job to help with the trees after all. But…Discord cursed them. They were really stubborn, but I finally got my way with them. Then, people told me that the logs were growing new limbs and choking people. So, I used some pest spray on them and they stopped moving around after that. Strange, huh?"_

_ "Oh, yeah." She knew she was going to have to tell her brother about that. "Um, don't mind me for asking, but what's your name? I only dashed here for help because I know of where you are, not who you are."_

_ "My name is Beanpole. And yours?" Oh, no. He asked for a name, and she knew she couldn't give her real one. "Deception" would arouse suspicion, because it was definitely not a pony name. But, deception was her specialty, and she would use it. She replied, "My name is Coffee Cream."_

_ "Oh, that's great. My house is right up on the hill there." He pointed, and she saw a small log cabin on a hill as stated before. "You can live with me and my girlfriend until we can find a place for you to…stay?" He had turned back to look for her, but she was gone. He shrugged it off, and headed up to the cabin, hoping she would come by later. Deception walked through the trees until she came to a spot far away from anypony who could possibly see her. She took out a pocket watch and hit the set time knob. All of time ceased for just a moment._

_ "What seems to be the problem?" Discord flashed in to stare at his disguised sister. She questioned, "'Problem'? The problem is that you never told me that this pony had a girlfriend! Now what are we going to do?"_

_ "I'm not sure. I was only in this to watch you and Beanpole…" He clicked with his tongue and motioned with his hands to show what he meant.  
"Oh, Discord! Come on! Can't you corrupt this girlfriend so I can get Beanpole to trust in me?" He sighed, "Alright, I'll do this much. But after that, it's all up to you to obtain your hubbie." Discord flashed out and time started back up again. Deception walked up the hill to Beanpole's cottage, hoping he could get him to come back outside so Discord could do what was needed. She opened the door of the cabin to see Beanpole, and the aforementioned girlfriend, a woman with pink hair and wearing a mulberry dress._

_ "Oh, hi, Coffee," Beanpole greeted Deception again. He pointed to the woman. "This is my girlfriend, Sugar Plum." The pink-haired woman waved at Deception and looked to the fire. Deception noticed that it was down to a few dying embers. Sugar stated, "Beanie, the fire's getting low. Can you go chop some more wood?" He nodded, and the woman in disguise saw this as a perfect opportunity for her brother to come in._

_ "Let me help," Deception said to Beanpole. "I have some time chopping wood with my uncle." The man smiled, and nodded, as if to say "yes." The two headed out, leaving Sugar Plum to herself once again. Discord knew his sister would've wanted him to use this time, so he did. He flashed into the room, making Sugar Plum squeal, "Eep! It's Discord!"_

_ "Yes, it's very sad your boyfriend has left you….but not that sad."_

_ "What do you mean?" Despite her fear, her curiosity got the best of her._

_ "Well, he only let you in to get you to be with him. He's just a player. I've seen him do it before, many times in the last five hundred years." Her mind swarmed with visions of what would come. She saw her boyfriend, toying with her emotions, but she never realized it was Discord actually doing it. Her lovely colors all grayed and her anger burning, the dragonequis flashed out._

_ Beanpole and Deception came back soon enough, and Beanpole, seeing Sugar curled up on the floor asked her, "Sugar Plum? Are you okay?" He tried to stretch out a hand to help her, but she got up and snarled, "Get away from me."_

_ "Sugar Plum? Are you alright?" She headed towards the door and yelled, "I know what you're up to! You're going to break my heart, just like you did with the others!"_

_ "What others?" She let out a roar of rage through her teeth, then went out and slammed the door on him. Beanpole looked heartbroken, and Deception soothed him, "It's going to be okay. Don't worry, I've helped people with break-ups before." Little did he know, she was talking about helping herself._

The next few days went by slowly. Waiting for the end of the week at the start of the week is…not the best way to begin it. And I could see throughout the week that Jackie's suspicions were growing. It was Friday afternoon before she confronted me about it, and she came into the dorm, asking, "Okay, what's going on between you and Charlie?"

"What do you mean?" Okay, I wasn't good at playing this off. I sighed, "Alright, I confronted Charlie about what you told me and asked him if he liked me. He did, and….he asked me out on a date for tonight."

"And you knew you couldn't turn him down because he's a friend, so you said yes." I nodded; she knew me well. Jackie continued, "Well, since I'm guessing this is your first date, we better get you prepared for this."

"P-prepared?" She went over to the dresser at the end of the bunk beds and took out some outfits. She explained as she laid out outfits, "Don't pick anything too casual; you don't know where he'll be taking you. But also don't dress too formal either; it could be a drive-thru for all I know. Don't pick anything too flirty; you don't want to give yourself away."

"Wow." I was impressed by how much she knew, and she was a month younger than me! "Where did you get all that?"

"Believe it or not, my brother told me what he knew from the girls he's been in relationships with." We both laughed, and began to pick out outfits. Jackie stated, "If we're going to make you over for your date, you are going to need to take down that mop of hair."

"But…I like my hair up." My hair was piled up in a nice up-do as always. Jackie came closer to my hair. We had a little argument, in which she was able to pull out a few pins here and there, making my hair fall. She gaped, "Wow."

"What? Does it look bad?"

"No, it just looks….like I've never seen it down before."

"That's because you haven't." Jackie helped me pick out an outfit, a pink blouse with a hot pink skirt. She also helped me with my makeup. When we were done, she stated, "It's only 7:15. Maybe you should take a nap."

"Why? Won't that smear up my makeup?"

"Yes, but you don't want your narcolepsy to kick in while you're on your date, do you?" I nodded, and I lay back down on the bed, putting my head between two pillows so I wouldn't be woken up.

_ "Has it reached the southern fields yet?"_

_ "Just about." Caramel and Applejack raced to the field, hoping what Discord had done hadn't reached them yet. The couple came and looked in horror as trees to their left and right started to wilt up and die. AJ asked, "What is Discord doing?"_

_ "He's trying to kill off all of the trees, to limit our food supply!"_

_ "What about the apples we picked before they started wiltin'?"_

_ "Um…" Caramel turned to the barrels he had picked when the sun was up. They were fine, but the ones he had picked once the trees started to wilt were rotting away. "The bushels from before are fine, but…" The brunette had reached over to place a hand on the tan blonde's shoulder, but found her not there. He saw her running towards one tree, in the middle of all the others, and desperately crying, "Please don't wilt, please don't wilt, please don't wilt…."_

_ Fortunately, because it was not an apple tree, it was spared from Discord's spell. Caramel walked to her, and saw her curled up in a ball at the base of the tree, sobbing. He had never seen the strong, brave, independent mare like this, but then again, nothing like this had ever happened. He decided to try his best to comfort her; he wrapped his arms around the sobbing woman and said, "It's going to be alright. Even if we don't make it out of this with our friends and family, we'll still have eachother…"_


	8. Tough Love, Part Two

I awoke to the honk of a car horn, or at least one on Jackie's sound app. She explained, "It's 8 o'clock. Charlie should be here. Did he give you a specific place to meet up?" I replied, "No, he didn't…I-!" Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Jackie motioned her hands to the door and stated, "Prince Charming awaits." I opened the door and found Charlie there wearing a brown and yellow argyle sweater vest. He was holding a bouquet of flowers. I grabbed them out of his hands and smelled them. "Azaleas, right? How did you know they were my favorite flower?"

"Jackie told me," he answered, pointing to my dorm mate. I turned to her and exclaimed, "Jackie!"

"You were out for 45 minutes," she shrugged. "I had to do something." I giggled and placed the flowers down. Charlie asked, "You're not going to take them with you?"

"I think they'd just get in the way," I replied. "So, where are we going?"

"To the movies, so I do think it's best you're not bringing the flowers." I knew the movie theater was only a few blocks from the academy, so we had time to talk while we walked there. While we walked, I asked him, "So…how did you even get a crush on me?"

"I….I dunno. I guess I just thought you were sweet, funny, nice, sociable…I didn't really think about it as a crush until you and Jackie mentioned it as one. I guess it is one, though, so…why not deny it as one?"

"It's nice of you to think of it that way. Plus, I'm comfortable around you, so I shouldn't feel uncomfortable while we're dating."

"So what if we break up?" I stopped right there and after thinking about it, answered, "I guess we could still be friends. I don't see how just breaking up will put a damper in us being together." We talked about some other things, and pretty soon we were at the movie theater. Charlie explained, "I didn't really choose a movie for us to see together. How about we see that new action flick?"

"Sure! Sounds great!" Of course, it had to be that night that three action movies were coming out, and all three seemed great. We decided on the one that was PG, since the other one was rated PG-13 and the third was rated R. We could never get into that one no matter how hard we tried. The movie started out…

_"I have to tell you something, Agent Macintosh…."_

_"Big Macintosh…there's something I have to tell you…" Fluttershy looked at the man with concern. "The grey, it's not coming out, but thankfully, I was able to get out all the grey spots out on your head. So, you should be able to think straight." Big Mac groaned, "That's the thing, Flutters. My mind is telling me to keep you safe, but my body…" He let his mind go limp, and the yellow Pegasus saw his fists shake._

_ His left fist jabbed at her, which she fortunately avoided, screaming. Big Mac opened his eyes, and shakily put his fist back down. He instructed, "I need you to do something to hold down my arms and legs."_

_ "But…" she whimpered, "I don't want to hurt you…"_

_ "Don't worry; if you don't do this, you'll be the only one getting hurt." He motioned to some rope she had lying on the floor. "Tie me down by my wrists and ankles to the table with that. My hands and feet can't hurt you that way." Fluttershy nodded, though she almost felt sorry for putting him through all this. But…if it's what would cure him, she would do it. She tied down his wrists and ankles, attaching the rope to the table legs, so if he tried to break free, the table would just fall over._

_ His body struggled many times, but his mind was able to get some control over it. His hands and feet were still shaking, but the Pegasus saw he could hold them back. He sighed, "This corruption was meant for you. If it were for me, I'd be a giant dog right now like that pony down at the hospital…"_

_ "You mean Screwloose?"_

_ "Yes, her. This, because Discord knows you would never cave in, was meant to be strong on a weak person. N-Not sayin' you are…"_

_"Don't worry," she said with an apologetic tone. "I know I'm weak…"_

_"And the only reason I have any hope for sanity is because it's only strong on a weak person. On somepony strong, like me, it's like battling against a really strong cow I once had to stubbornly put back in the barn. We were both so evenly matched, it was hard to tell who was winnin'….but I got him back in the barn in the end."_

_ "What a n-nice story…" Fluttershy looked at him in fear. It didn't take Big Macintosh long to realize that his hands were shaking again. She grumbled, "Oh….I just wish…" She then threw her arms around his waist, and he gasped. She cried, "I just wish things were back to normal! When I'd be shy and you wouldn't say much, but I knew what you wanted!"_

_ She sobbed, staining his shirt with her tears, and he almost felt sorry for her. It was too bad his body wouldn't act upon that. But…for a moment, he felt something…like part of his body _didn't _want to hurt Fluttershy. She looked up, wiping away the tears. His fists shook, and she took a step back. He was strong enough that he broke out of the ropes, and…._

_ Hugged her. The grey spots were now just a little off from his regular color, and he snapped out of the ropes on his ankles as well. He said, "Maybe that's what we need. WE need to be friends with each other, and mutually."_

_ "Yeah…" she laughed nervously, trying to hide her feelings, yet embracing the hug. "That's what we need…"_

"Mary?" I awoke to the sound of people leaving and seeing the credits roll. I looked at him with a sad look on my face, getting up out of my seat. I asked, "I slept through the entire thing?" He nodded. "Really?" He nodded again. "Aw! I'm so sorry, Charlie! Look, I took a nap and everything before we came!"

"I know," he replied, not looking very angry with me. We both headed out of the theater, and walked back to the school and our dorms. I asked him as we walked, "So, how was the movie?"

"Oh, it was great! It was about this spy who has to protect this princess. The thing is, the princess has already been kidnapped by a rival spy, and the spy has to figure out the real princess' location."

"Well, it sounds nice…" and vaguely similar to something mentioned in Romore's Mythology class. We walked back in silence, trying to avoid anything that would make this more embarrassing. When we got back to my dorm, before we opened the door, Charlie stated, "I had the most wonderful time." Then, something even more embarrassing than me falling asleep watching an action movie happened. Charlie looked at me, and….kissed me. My eyes widened as he had his lips right on mine.

The door to my dorm opened. Jackie looked at us, and shouted, "Whoa-ho-ho! Charlie, kissing on the first date! You sly dog!" Charlie finally pulled back, making me wonder why I hadn't. He said, "Got to go," and ran towards the stairs. Jackie looked as he almost tripped on the stairs, but didn't anyway.

"Well…that was certainly unexpected," I said in my defense.

"That was his first kiss."

"What?"

"He told me he was planning to kiss you tonight. I knew all along. Don't ask me why I did that; probably because I knew."

"And you didn't tell me?" I hugged my friend and I talked about the short and sweet date as we both got dressed for bed. We both went to sleep, both happy with our Friday nights. I sighed, closing my eyes to sleep, "Tonight was magical…"

_ "Today is going to be magical…." Discord looked between his two prisoners. "For me, anyway. I didn't know the Doctor had escaped my corruption, but you…" He looked to Fire Dawn, and the yellow prince was in a corner. "You will not. I could use somepony to visit the Badlands for me. I heard the changeling queen is doing well. Perhaps you'd like to give her a message?"_

_ "I…I will never bow down to you!" the former allicorn growled at the dragonequis, but he knew it would be of no use. The cell opened, and Discord grasped up Fire by his neck. His colors desaturated, and his wife watched in mute horror at it all. Fire said in a dull tone, "I am ready to serve you, King Discord."_

_ "Splendid! Now…" He snapped his fingers, placing the prince's horn and wings back on him. "I know you're a bit rusty—it has been over a thousand years—but I know you will spread as much chaos as I love to!"_

_ "Believe me, I used to when I was younger." Twilight remembered one day he had accidentally turned himself to Discord, and stirred up some minor chaos when that happened. The dragonequis chuckled, putting the yellow allicorn in Twi's cell, "Why don't you say some good-byes to your wife before you leave?"_

_ Discord snapped out, leaving Twilight with her discorded husband. She would've loved being in a cell with him, but these were horrid circumstances. She backed away from him, and he teased, "Oh, honey, aren't you happy to finally be with your Prince Charming?"_

_ "Not if you're working for him."_

_"Heh," he smirked, "I don't need you. You're like a changeling; you've been feeding off other ponies' love, including mine to survive. Admit it; without me, you're nothing." Twi could now see through Discord's fragile game: take all that she cared about, all that she loved, turn it against her, and watch her die in sadness. But she would never give in, because she knew he was behind it._

_ "Fire, stop this. Now. If you wish to be a pawn to Discord, I would like you to not be so in my presence."_

_ "Fine. I'll now go off to take on another feeder of love." He teleported out and left her in the cell alone. But…even she knew she would rather be with her loving husband than her greatest enemy in times of need. _


	9. Torturing Trust and Cracking Cleverness

It had been about two months since Mary had come to PerryAcademy, and now, they were having their first field trip. The bus the school used was taking them up to the mountain ranges, where a ski lodge was. The blonde had her hair up as usual, and was sitting next to her redhead friend, Jackie Hollings.

Jackie's brother, Joey, sat in the aisle seat right across from her, and Charlie was scrunched between Joey and the window. Mary asked, "So is this what they do most years?"

"They do this every year," Jackie explained. "It's mostly a thing to teach friendship, so it's mostly encouraged that the freshman come. But, they usually let the other grades on so they can have a break from school." She turned to the guys sitting across from her. "Isn't that right, boys?" They nodded, and Mary laughed, "This is going to be great; the whole day with just us four!"

The four were so excited to finally be at the resort. There was so much they all wanted to do. Jackie wanted to rent some skis, and Joey wanted to snowboard. Charlie wanted to look at the spa, and he wanted Mary to come with him. But…the blonde suddenly felt tired, and he knew it was her narcolepsy. Charlie told her to lie down near the fire, and she did as told, keeping warm and toasty as she drifted off.

_"I have done as you asked," Deception explained as she sat at one end of the very long, and very narrow dinner table. "The baby's due in nine months." Discord, who was sitting at the opposite end from her, asked, "Well, do you know what it's going to be? A boy? Girl? Some freakish dragonequis-pony hybrid?" _

_ "Oh, that would be spectacular," she exclaimed. "Imagine the chaos we could create with one of those!" She looked back to her brother, and found, to her surprise, a look of displeasure. "Oh, come now. I only said that because I knew you would laugh. What's troubling you? You're usually not this….moody."_

_ "Dezzy," he started, using his pet name for her from their childhood, "I sense the Extra Element's return is near. That's why I needed the prince under my control, so they won't have the most powerful Element when they return: love. That's also why I needed an heir, just in case I do fail, someone will carry on for me."_

_ "Wow. It's amazing how much thought you put into this. But…can't you just go to whatever world these Extra Elements are in? I mean, that's how you spent time in 'prison': dimension-jumping." He was about to speak against it, but held his tongue when he started to think about it. After a moment of realization he gasped, "My word, Dezzy! You're a genius!"_

_ "And it took you that long to notice it?" Discord walked from the hall to her very slowly as he added, "And of course, I have my old human form, but I'm quite the celebrity in that world, so I'll have to think of something more akin to how I look now so I won't get noticed." With a snap of his fingers, his long dragon form was turned into a human. _

_ "Yes," she snarked. "I'm sure if you went in as your other human form, you would have hundreds of fangirls just gawking at the sight of you." Deception was right; this human form of him…wasn't much of a looker. His hair was white, and he still had his bushy eyebrows and goatee. His clothes matched his mismatched features. He shouted, "Bah! I doesn't matter! The point is to go unnoticed!"_

_ "Well, why don't you wear a more…subtle outfit, like mine?" She snapped up her human form's outfit, and Discord copied it (Well, he turned the brown skirt to pants.) She told him, "Now go off and make sure they never want to come back."_

_ "I'll make sure their principal won't come back, either…"_

Mary woke up with a start. She first saw that the fire was out, and then looked to see the lights were out, and the lodge was completely empty. She thought it was a dream, but…something was off, even if this was one. She looked around the back of her seat, and saw…no one. She sighed, only to scream when she saw someone in front of her that looked…familiar.

"Hello, Mary," he greeted.

"Do I know you?" she asked, but he didn't seem to give a straight answer.

"Oh, you will in time. I'm here to help you…"

"But I don't need any help," she said naively. "My friends are here to help me. At least…I think they are. They….probably left, to do something else. After all, this is a field trip."

"Yes….it's kind of upsetting, isn't it? They probably should've invited you…"

"W-Well…" The man started to take notice she was letting her guard down. She didn't even notice him pull a staff seemingly from out of under his coat. "Sometimes, friends need to do their own thing, don't they?"

"Didn't 'Romore' say they were somebody that you could trust?"

"Yes…." She didn't quite know what he was getting at.

"So how can you trust the principal herself when she's filling your head with lies?" Mary scoffed, "She's a responsible adult, not to mention the highest-ranked faculty member! If anyone, I can trust her!"

"Ah, but remember at other schools? You've always had a problem finding someone to click with…" It was true. Mary would try her best to fit in, but she would end up humiliated in the end. She would then talk to a guidance counselor or the principal about it, but they never did much to help. She warily replied, "I-I know…"

"And when you thought you me the 'right' group of friends, they only used you….leaving you with an empty wallet and heartbreak."

"Y-Yes…." It's like he hit the subject spot on. She tried not to focus on what he said, closing her eyes. But that only made him to come to her and put the staff to her head, drilling it in. He asked, "So why would they be any different? These people you've bonded with for about a month, how do you know they'll do with you in the future? They could leave you alone, cold; sad when you can't trust your own roomie…"

She groaned in pain as she felt something cold pass over her body. "Nnng…" She then rose up from her seat, pushing the staff away. "Gah-get out of here! Why do I need information from you?!" She then realized, though nobody had heard her outburst, that the lodge was filled with people and life. The man that was with her only a moment ago was gone. Though there could've been witnesses, no one saw that Mary's skin was pale, her hair grayed. She grumbled, "Why do I need help from anybody. I've been weak for too long…"

Jackie slid down the slopes of the intermediate slopes she decided to go down. She wasn't inexperienced at the sport of skiing, but was no pro at it either. She continued to slide down the slopes until she heard a wolf howl. She skidded with her skis to stop and looked around nervously.

"Sounds can be deceiving, can't they?" Her eyes froze as she saw a man standing near a pine tree that wasn't appropriately dressed for the cold slopes. Of course, Jackie's instinct was to ask, "Who are you?"

But the stranger continued, "What's even more deceiving is your intellect. Tell me, when's the last time you used the Internet to look up something?"

"Like, you mean for an assignment at school? Well," she let out a laugh, "I don't. I use books from the library, for the most part. The Internet isn't a very reliable source of information."

"….maybe it is for birthdays. Don't tell me you've forgotten that a special day for Romore is coming up?"

"Um, no…" she said, but soon retorted, "but I don't have any account on any of those sites. Besides, Romore shouldn't care. She's not my friend, she's a principal."

"Yes, and I'm a mysterious stranger. Believe me, Jackie, I know that all that information you have is not good for such a young girl."

"H-how did you know my na-!" Suddenly, she collided with another skier, not even bothering to move out of the path of others. She crashed downhill, moving only when the collided skier tried to untwist herself. Jackie screamed, but no one heard her. It was then and there they both crashed. Jackie groaned and blacked out. She didn't even notice the same stranger coming at her with a staff

"This is what you get for having too much knowledge," he chuckled, putting the staff to Jackie's head. Her colors desaturated, and the man soon disappeared. She awoke, not seeing anyone around her from the event. She asked, "Wh-where am I? And what happened? Oh, right! I have to get Romore something for her special day!" The naïve redhead hummed as she sped down the slopes, tripping over her skates a few times, but still managing to get right back up.

_ "Ah, it's so perfect to see them acting so naïve and innocent!"_

_ "Yes, and you're not going to thank me for helping with that little skiing stunt back there? I could've gotten killed, Disco! Killed!"_

_ "Well, you didn't. We dragonequi don't kill easily anyways."_

_ "So who's next?"_

_ "Those two miserable males. Well, they'll be miserable by the time I'm done with them…."_

_ "Ha-ha, yes….Oh, and by the way, just to clarify…what is this special day of Romore's?"_

_ "Oh, one she will not soon forget: my splendid return."_


	10. Sapping Strength, Corrupting Confidence

Joey was back at the lodge, resting up from snowboarding. Like his sister was with skiing, he was an amateur. He was relaxing in one of the private rooms upstairs, and was wondering where Jackie would be. He had seen her go down the ski slopes, and hoped she wouldn't have any trouble getting back. Suddenly, the door creaked open.

"I'm sorry," the blonde replied to the door, "but this room is occupied, I'm afraid you're going to have to leave."

"Joseph Hollings, I have terrible news." He could hear the somberness in the stranger's voice. The stranger was now standing next to him. He explained, "I work here at the lodge and had the…unfortunate pleasure of meeting your sister."

"Hey," Joey got out of the chair he was sitting in, not even asking for how he knew she was related to Jackie. "She may not always have her hair or makeup perfect, but she's trying to live her life, and-!"

"It is not of who your sister is," he interjected, "it is how I met her. She was going down a slope, as I often watch people do so, but as she skidded to a stop, another skier ran into her. She got…severely injured I'm afraid." The stranger pulled out an iPod-like device and hit a few buttons on it. "I actually got some footage of it. Let's watch her_ die_ together, shall we?"

"D-Die?" Joey's face grew pale at the very mention of his sister's death, but the stranger again explained, "Well, her death was not announced, but the paramedics said she may be seriously injured, and might be in a wheelchair because of how the other person collided."

"Did…did they tell you where they were taking her?" The person who worked there shook his head. "No, they gave me no information, and even I don't know where the nearest hospital is from here. I'm sorry, Mr. Hollings, this must seem like all your fault." The man left, but Joey stayed back, wondering what he meant. _Was it really all his fault?_

No, it couldn't be….

_But, he wasn't there to stop it…_

It was out of his hands anyway, wasn't it?

_No, but you weren't there. You could've waited for your sister, like a good brother, but you didn't, and she had to go off to die at the hospital, all alone, without the strength of her brother to help her through… _Joey's thoughts seemed to rebel with what he wanted. He wanted to be there, but wasn't. He wanted someone to help her through this, but didn't even know where she was. He wanted to be the best brother ever, but he couldn't even be with her.

His skin grew even more pale, and his hair and clothing did so as well. He ran out of the room, clutching his face in his hands, sobbing.

_ "You know, you didn't have to be so harsh on him."_

_ "Did you want this plan to work?"_

_ "Well, think about it; how would you feel if you were told I was about to die, and you had no idea where I was?"_

_ "Well, I know you'd be going to Tartarus."_

_ "Oh, for Pete's sake! Though I must admit, you did do a good job with acting somber about the whole thing. Not a hint of malice in your voice."_

_ "Well, we're both good at deceiving people, are we not?"_

_ "So you do take after me a little bit. How did you manage to corrupt him without touching him?"_

_ "Sometimes, you don't even have to be in the room for them to become corrupted. Speaking of which, we'll only have to watch what happens to the last element…. confidence."_

Charlie came back to the lodge, having spent all his time at the spa and spending any quarters he could get at the lodge's small arcade. The first face he saw that he knew was Mary, but he didn't realize that her face…. wasn't as friendly as it should be. Still, he greeted, "Hey, Mary. I'm sorry I didn't wait for you at the spa."

"Oh, _really!?_" The tension in her voice was something not even diamonds could cut through. One cross look and he could tell she was ticked. "You know, if you were some real friend and not the crude _faker_ you are, I might accept your apology!"

"M-Mary?!" Charlie, not ever seeing this side of her, took a step back. "A-Are you alright?" He tried to place a hand on her shoulder, but she slapped it away.

"Sorry, _dear, _but I've took a long and hard look of our relationship, and I don't want _you _or anyone else at this school to use me like you or your friends have used me." She walked away to the bus in a huff, and Charlie looked a bit vacantly for a second to realize what was happening.

"Hey, Chuck!" The brunette heard the crude shortening of his name and turned around to see Jackie. He would've screamed when he saw it was her, but this was a public building. He _hated _anyone who called him that. But…there was something about her that made her seem a bit off. And he wasn't afraid to ask her about it. "Jackie, are you…grey?"

"Oh, I guess I am!" Charlie took notice of the ditzy, bubbly tone in her voice. "Maybe it's just the lighting. Well, we're going to be leaving soon." _Thanks, captain obvious, _Charlie thought as other students got on, but kept it to himself. "I still gotta get something special for Romore!"

_For what? _Charlie was speechless as she left giggling and bubbly as ever. He had never seen his two best girl friends like this. He got on the bus to find Joey, sitting alone and…looking weak. He would've sat right next to him, but the blonde looked like he could use some alone time.

But then he remembered something that Romore had said to him when he first came here. _"You will have three friends. One representing Trust," _his eyes fell to Molly, _"one representing Cleverness," _he noticed Jackie out of the corner of his eye, _"and one representing Strength." _He then remembered what she said about him. _"You are Confidence. You are meant to be the leader of the Extra Elements. You must keep them protected."_

He….he didn't….

He let them get hurt….

And by _who? Or what? _It didn't take him long to see the images in his mind. The strings of the puppeteer being pulled. A horrible work of art. Fire, burning, brimstone…and his horrible laughter echoing throughout. Charlie knew it. He mouthed it, but no one noticed. _Discord is here…._

_ There's no hope left…._

_ I can't do this…_

_ I can't be the leader…._

_ I can't do anything…._

_Five extra elements, left through the door,_

_ One saw the truth, and then there were four._

_ Four extra elements, safe as could be,_

_ Mind crashed and burned, and then there were three._

_ Three extra elements, did all they could do,_

_ Brawn lost his strength, and then there were two._

_ Two extra elements, to ruin my fun,_

_ Leader was alone, and then there was one._

_ One extra element, loved by only one,_

_ Her love had to leave….and then, there were none._


	11. Banding Back Together

Being principal of a school was tough. You were looked up to by teachers and students, but looked down on by the board of schools. You had to make sure that the students got good grades so that you wouldn't be looked down upon by the board. And of course, she got worried when the school's top student, Jackie Hollings, wasn't coming in for school. She tried to contact her brother, but he didn't answer his phone, and he wasn't coming to his classes either. When she went to his dorm, all she heard was sobbing.

The only two of the Elements that were showing up were Charlie and Mary. Now, she had overheard from some other students that they had went on a date. And before the lodge trip, they seemed happy. But she noticed them not sitting together, and even arguing. Could a bump in a relationship really do that to people?

Her mind flooded with thoughts as she went to bed. She had seen relationships turn sour, and sometimes it was out of her control. But, she knew that sometimes, they just had to realize what was important in the relationship, even if it was just friendship. How would they get these four friends to realize it was important? _NO! _she thought. _I can't use my magic; I can't reveal myself now…_

_"__**Thought you could hide from me, Cadence?**__"_

_ "How…how do you know my name? Wait…that voice… No, it can't be! F-For you to be here would mean you crossed through the gate!"_

_ "__**You obviously forget that chaos knows no bounds.**__"_

_ "But…why are you here? Don't you have a country to lead?"_

_ "__**Yes, you did too; The Crystal Empire, to be precise. Then, your ancestors left it for the longest time. They fled when King Sombra was still in power. I remember teaching him a few tricks, specifically the corruption spell. Oh, he did miracles with that charm. Then you came back, a thousand years later, and returned with your husband to what was rightfully yours. And then…you left out of fear**__."_

_ "It was not fear, Discord! It was so I could locate the extra Elements, and the carriers of the True Wings needed to reseal you to stone. That is not of fear; that is of hope that they have arrived."_

_ "__**So why did you leave your husband then? He's powerless without an allicorn like you…. You haven't seen the things I've done to him, have you?**__"_

_ "Stop! You foul tempter! You probably haven't touched an appendage into the Crystal Empire since its return."_

_ "__**And miss up the chance to play with the brother of Twilight Sparkle? Don't make me laugh, Cadence.**__"_

_ "If you lay ONE CLAW to his head…."_

_ "__**Ah-ah-ah. I wouldn't use that magic if I were you. It's a slow process, but if you do, you and the others that have been enchanted will slowly show that they aren't human. You wouldn't want to do that, would you?**__"_

_ "DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!"_

_ "__**Watch me.**__"_

Mrs. Romore tried to jump on whatever she could identify as Discord in the shadows of her nightmare, but in reality, she just fell out of bed. She groaned and got up, but didn't go back to bed. Instead, she walked over to a full-body mirror she had in her bedroom. She didn't look at it often, usually when she was putting on new clothing or needed to look at something she felt but couldn't see.

It was the latter in this case, and she looked into the mirror to see her golden hair was stained. She squinted to see the colors; they were pink and purple. She sighed, and thought, _Discord started the changes already. I need to find those kids, and change them back. If I can't beat these changes… _She used her magic, for what felt like forever, to bring her clothes to herself. _I might as well embrace them._

It was the start of the weekend, and the school grounds of PerryAcademy were filled with the hustle and bustle of students just…hanging out. Some had AP courses over the weekend that they went to. The hoodlums of the school grounds usually filled the classes with pranks, but they were disarmed once the AP classes came in.

No one usually saw the principal there on the weekend, but this was an exception. She had business with her most trusted students, and right now, she only had one she wanted to talk to the most: Charlie Williams. Last she had heard of him, he was failing all his most recent assignments. She came to his dorm room only to find him laying on the bed, and he replied with a groan.

"Principal Romore…." he said, not even bothering to look at her. "I know what you're here about. And…" The principal noticed he started to tear up. "I…I'm so sorry I let you down. I…I don't deserve your forgiveness."

"You haven't let me down yet," she insisted.

"Wh….what?" She noticed a certain gleam in his eyes, one she hadn't seen in almost a week. She smiled at it. "The only way you could possibly let me down is if you don't help me rescue your friends right now."

"I…I don't think I can do that. I-I've let you down too many times now."

"Oh, come now, Charlie, when have you ever let me down?" She placed an arm on his shoulder and forced his brain to remember the good times. She usually used this on lovers to help them remember their good times, but…it could work for them too. She let out a silent gasp as she saw that his color had been restored.

"Pr-Principal Romore, what happened?" Charlie got up and noticed his hair in a nearby mirror. "Is my hair auburn? And is that green? Romore, what's happening to my hair?" She placed a hand on his shoulder and replied, "Our identity has been blown. We are slowly changing back to our natural forms. And I need your help."

Jackie was on the road; she had lent her brother's car, even though she hadn't heard from him in a week. Her "friends" had convinced her to borrow it. The road was open and there wasn't a car in sight. Until…the driver, Frankie, a rather rowdy senior, noticed in the left mirror a purple car gaining.

Principal Romore and Charlie were able to get right next to the car, considering it was just a country road and not a busy highway. Both opened-top cars were right next to each-other, and Charlie was able to shout, "Get in, loser! I've always wanted to say that…."

"Charlie!" Frankie exclaimed. "You want me to kill myself and the passengers?!"

"No, no, not you!" The car slowed down a little so Charlie, who was in shotgun, could talk to the back left passenger who wasn't wearing a seatbelt. "We need her."

"Fine. Pull her out. She isn't wearing a seatbelt!" The brunette in Romore's car nodded, and pulled the redhead in the back out. As Frankie's car drove off, Principal Romore pulled her car to the side of the road. Jackie, who was squirming horribly in the seat that Charlie and she were both in, yelled, "Hey! Let go of me! Why would you two do this to me?! Those were my friends back there!"

"'Friends'?" Charlie questioned. "What in the world has willed you to think those jokers are your friends?"

"The gray spell," Romore interrupted. "It's affected her in the most confusing case I've ever seen. She seems….naive, but doesn't trust her friends."

"That's because you think I'm stupid!" the redhead exclaimed, not understanding anything but the last sentence. "I thought you would like that I would care about you more, but you seemed….weirded-out by how much I cared."

"Jackie, you shouldn't pretend, or even try to be dumb if you think it's going to get you friends. It really isn't." Cadence then used her magic again to make Jackie remember all the times she had helped out her friends using her smarts, mostly her brother. Her colors were restored….and a little bit more.

"Romore, what…" She noticed her tousle with Charlie and put her arms around him. "I'm so sorry! I never saw Discord coming! I…I thought he was just a myth!" Charlie sighed, "We _all _didn't prepare for this. And now…things are getting worse."

"What do you me-!" She then noticed something strange about the strand of hair in her face. "Is my hair _purple_?" Cadence told them, turning the car around, "Charlie, tell her on the way. We've got her brother to fix next."

To say Joey felt miserable was an understatement. He was _devastated. _He had taken a long personal leave for the week, but he could still feel the grief. How could he ever let his sister down? He wasn't there when he needed her. It was late at night on Saturday, and even though it was just a week, it felt like years. He had confined himself to the room, living off anything he had stored there.

Principal Romore was nervous to come in. She didn't want to make a corrupted Element of Strength even more on edge than she knew he would be. She looked to Jackie, and nodded. Jackie nodded back, and went into the room. Joey saw her immediately, and jumped back.

"N-No, it can't be…" he whimpered. "Y-You were confirmed dead!" She sighed, hoping he would listen to reason. "Joey, I am here. That man lied to you, and I'm here. Don't worry, I'm here now."

"No, you're not, b-because…" She then saw something that she had never seen Joey do before; he was crying. "I wasn't there for you!" He didn't seem to stop crying when Jackie placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Joey, I know you can't be strong all the time…but I do know this. You have friends who care about you. _I _care about you, and for all the times that you can't be strong…I'll be the best sister I can be. I'll….I'll be there for you!" Even though she was well-aware of his corrupted state, she hugged him. She looked at him, and smiled. She was glad that Romore wouldn't have to use the memory spell on him, because his colors were back.

The principal heard silence, and looked through the door. Jackie noticed this and nodded in order to tell them to come in. Charlie and Cadence both joined the hug. Joey opened his eyes and asked, "What are you guys doing here? Where's Mary? Is she okay?" Principal Romore sighed, "That's what we need your help on…"

Romore ran out of Mary's dorm, her hair frazzled and an expression of shock and awe on her face. She panted, a bit out of breath from the running, "She….she's lost all sense of sanity…all she says is the screams of the mantra… 'I can't trust you'….over and over…."

"Well, I'm not giving up my dorm!" Jackie exclaimed, going over to the door, but Romore put her hand over it.

"The only hope for her now is someone to love her."

"I'm her friend. Of course I love her."

"Um, not like that," Joey interrupted. They then soon all looked to Charlie, and he stared at them in confusion. I mean, it was obvious he had a growing crush on her, but that couldn't be true love, could it? The brunette, figuring it was worth a shot, decided to go in.

The principal and the two siblings all leaned against the door, trying to hear as many sounds as they could. Like before, Romore could hear Mary throwing things at Charlie. Joey gave a small grin when he heard a ball being thrown, but a reply of, "Good arm." Jackie heard animal-like growls and pants to confirm the principal's claims of Mary's crazy behavior.

Eventually, minutes turned into hours. The sun was setting when they had returned from Jackie's little road trip, and when Joey had been restored, the moon was just coming up. This meant that they would have to wait through the night for Charlie to come out. The three had fallen asleep in the hallway, and it wasn't until midnight that they heard a growl of pain. It alerted them of something, and they all sprang up into Mary's dorm.

The place was trashed; it looked like a wild animal had come through and decided to claw up everything. Two people stood in a corner near the door: Charlie, who was crouched on the ground and looked exasperated, and Mary, who was passed out and her color had finally restored. Cadence had to know. "How did you do it?"

"I tried my best to keep calm with her," Charlie explained. "I didn't say anything to try and reason with her, and waited until she stopped throwing stuff. Then, I…um….well, she fainted from exhaustion. I was tired too, and decided it was then to give her true love's kiss. I can't believe it worked."

The four all decided they were too tired to go home, and since Jackie lived there, they decided to stay over there for the night. Joey and Charlie shared the bottom bunk and Romore took the top. Jackie slept on the desk chair, and figured she'd help Mary clean up her mess in the morning.

The night quickly passed, and a collected Mary found her room trashed. Having no memory of what happened to her, she didn't want to jump to conclusions and figure it was all Jackie's fault. She cleaned up the place as much as she could, and decided to leave a note for the others when they awoke.

_ Guys, I don't know what happened here, but I feel as if I should apologize to all of you for what happened in these past few days. And…I think I remember Charlie kissing me? Anyway, I thank you for that, Charlie. You really are a good kisser._


	12. Seeds of Doubt and Discord

Rainbow Dash looked around the hospital in Cloudsdale. Magic by a few strong unicorns, though not as strong as Princess Twilight, had kept the sky city safe. Many living there had called it a safe-haven amongst the chaos. But…since five hundred years of wear and tear had been put on the shield, Discord had his eye on it.

Pegusi had kept and eye on the force-field, knowing that the dragonequis would be up to something. But…they never expected what hit them. It was actually hard to describe, though the most vivid part in the citizens of Cloudsdale's memories was the fire. A terrible green flame had set ablaze to the clouds. While a few were trying everything to get rid of the ethereal fire, other chaotic plagues came on the city.

The blue pegusi looked at all the patients, both left and right. The only one she was there for was the one she had battled with in particular. She remembered the time with him well.

_"Soarin'! We need your help defending the Cloudoseum!" Spitfire gave a heads up. Rainbow gave a hopeful look up to them. "Okay, you too, RD. We need all the help we can get." The Pegasus put her sword down in its sheath and flew up to the Cloudoseum. She didn't see it, but she heard a boom, then saw Soarin' start to fall to the earth._

_ Seeing her favorite Wonderbolt fall was like seeing an angel fall out of the sky (well, it was when they were all turned human.) She knew she couldn't let someone like him die. The brave Pegasus swooped down and caught him in the nick of time. As the rescuer, she got the first glimpse of what had made such an excellent flier as Soarin' fall. The Pegasus's left wing was burning up._

_ "Discord was in the Cloudoseum," Spitfire explained, flying over to RD. "He said he 'would take on all comers…' Soarin' was the first to stand up to him." The green fire stopped at the tip of his back. He had fainted from the fall and blow._

_ "I…" Rainbow Dash recalled her first memories of Discord. She actually tried to fight him, and he avoided it with his tempting words. He said that Cloudsdale, her home, would crumble without her. And now….it had come to fruition, after all these years. She then completed her sentence. "I never thought I'd see Discord actually use aggression. He…fights with his words and magic…."_

_ "Well, this magic made took a toll on one of our own." Spitfire, even in the midst of this chaos, stood strong. She took the fallen Soarin' out of Dash's hands and into her own. "I'll take him to the hospital here. You can visit him anytime you want, okay?"_

She figured she'd make time today. The rooms were marked with their patients so it would be easier for visitors to know where they were. Rainbow Dash asked a nurse just exactly which wing he was placed in (giving a little chuckle to herself after she said "wing.") He told her Soarin' was placed in the wing dedicated in the Wonderbolt's name, unironically.

She then noticed the door marked with his name and came in. She saw Spitfire sitting next to him. The fiery-haired woman looked up to RD and smiled. "I'm glad you came; thought you wouldn't show."

"What? And miss a chance to hang out with my favorite Wonderbolt?"

"You know I'm leaving, right?" The two laughed, but it stopped once they heard Soarin's groans of awakening. Spitfire got up out of the chair and waved good-bye. "Take good care of him, okay kid?" Rainbow nodded and Spitfire left.

"Hey, Soarin'," Rainbow greeted, sitting down where the Wonderbolt had been. "How have you been doing?"

"Better since you rescued me," he said hoarsely. His voice sounded as worn out as he looked. "But my wing, well…" He took off his covers with his right hand, exposing his left, burnt-up wing. Well, what was left of it.

The wing had not recovered at all. What was left was a few feathers that had burn marks on them. RD looked at it, somber all the while, and replied, "It was a magical injury, so it'll be a magical healing…right?"

"I can only hope…" He covered himself up again and sighed. He looked to her, looking for comfort. She realized this, and took the sword out of the sheath she had upon her waist. She stated, with a little chuckle, "Don't worry; we can take them." She just hoped Fluttershy could do the same back at her home…

Fluttershy hoped for safety in her cottage, but it was hard to find. She still vividly remembered the events of a few days ago. Discord sent his mutated animals upon her, hoping she would give up and be cruel to them when they finally tore through the boarded up windows and doors. The opposite (and expected) happened; she whimpered and whined in fear, hoping he would go away.

The dragonequis came in, and force-corrupted her again. But this time, something stood in-between her and him. Big Macintosh, seemingly coming from nowhere, had come to protect her. Discord went away before he could see the effects of what he had done. Big Mac, because of his strength, had the corruption made especially for Fluttershy split his brain in two. One side cared for the shy Pegasus, the other wanted her to suffer.

Through therapy and her kindness, Fluttershy had been able to keep the corruption at bay. It had almost healed, and only the occasional bout of anger came from the strong stallion. She recalled, as they spent time together, the months before Discord came back. After finding out he was some sort of "secret Element of Harmony," they seemed to hang out more, as if they did before.

It was another late evening together. The two usually ate something whipped up from the vegetable reserves, and tonight it was some soup. As they ate, Fluttershy noticed Big Macintosh wasn't actually eating; he was just playing with the veggies in the broth idly. She, because she wasn't afraid to speak up to him if need be, stated, "Big Mac, you've, um, hardly touched your food…"

"I'm weak, Fluttershy…."

"Well, then eat! It'll be better than-!"

"No, this _corruption's _made me weak." Fluttershy looked at him, confused by his growl.

"I…don't understand. It was meant for me; you've been able to fight it off, and-!" He got up from sitting down on the floor and banged his fist against the wooden table, leaving a noticeable dent.

"No, I've been fighting it for too long and it's _made me weak._" She noticed the change in his voice. It sounded distorted. Knowing exactly what was going on, she stood up too, unfurling her wings in anger. The next words to come out of her mouth were not to Macintosh himself, they were to the _corruption in his mind._

"Now, listen here, I don't know what you think you can do to Big Mac, but you will not hurt him, or hurt me. He is stronger than you ever were, even if you do adapt."

"_Well, look who's talking,_" the corruption said, drawing a smirk on the puppet of a pony's face. "_The weak little pony that stood up to me. You were too busy fighting me to be cruel; I must give you credit on that now._" Her wings started to soften up, and she felt tears on her eyes. "_Aw, is the little girl gonna cry?_"

"It sh-should've done this a long time ago…." She ignored the tears and ran to him. She gave the big man a kiss, which not only startled the corruption on him, it _pushed it out. _The Pegasus didn't even realize the power in her kiss; it just happened suddenly. Once the potent kiss was over, she stepped back. With a shimmer of light, Big Macintosh's colors were finally restored to normal. She looked at him, and gasped. "Oh, Big Mac….you've….finally regained your color back." He gave a smile.

"It's because you helped me, Fluttershy. You sorta made up that I helped protect you, and you helped protect me…from whatever that was."

"I'm just…" She ran to him again, wrapping her arms around his waist. She started to cry tears of joy. "So happy you're okay!"

"It's the same for you…." He hugged her back, and realizing they just had their first kiss, he thought, _Maybe I was meant to watch out for her…_

It felt like years, maybe it was, but Pinkie Pie finally got up from her bed. Oh, how much she hated to stand; it was bad for her joints, which were used to sitting down for so long now. She never liked standing at a time like this, because she was afraid to fall. She never wanted to fall to Discord, but he told her it was so easy. She always remembered every word he said just like it was yesterday; it could've been yesterday for all she knew….

_"Pinkie, you were my favorite. Oh, how I loved to watch you bring your friends to the brink of insanity with your constant 'fun.' But you've changed. These years have done things to you, haven't they? Well, you're still my favorite because you're so easy to irritate now. It's so fun to watch you get irritated and then EXPLODE! Oh, but everybody gets irritated by me. I'm a being of pure chaos; I get in everybody's way!"_

As his maniacal laughter echoed through her mind, she threw her pillow at a nearby mirror, shattering it to bits. But she remembered that feeling of irritation…she felt it for her friends not too long ago, when she was under Discord's corruption. Maybe…he was influencing her now? No, that couldn't be it. But….she _could_ be doing this to herself. It wasn't the first time she saw herself act like this…

She had to get out of this rut, no matter how much Discord was annoying her. In the shards of broken mirror, she saw herself. Her clothing was a fake sports jersey that was pink with magenta fringe. Underneath, she wore a black-and-white striped blouse, only the sleeves showing over the jersey. But it wasn't her clothing that mattered; it was her hair.

Her hair had been straight ever since her first encounter with Discord when he returned long ago. She knew her pure fear and hatred of him is what caused this. Though she was the Element of Laughter, she feared and hated hearing his. When she heard his cruel cackling, it meant someone was being tortured.

It wasn't the pure laughter like her element. The laughter she brought was of joy, and making those around her happy. She remembered the good times when people were still around to be happy. No one could come to Sugarcube Corner or frolic and be free now that that horrid dragonequis was around. She remembered the joy and happiness, she brought…and giggled a little. She looked into the mirror and was very happy to see some frizziness had come to her hair. It was a sign she was determined to get those good times back, no matter what.

Princess Twilight looked out her cell window, only to see the desolate world below. Even though it was night, the moon shined over it, giving the landscape the ominous feel it deserved. Before she died, Princess Celestia meant for her to take over the throne as princess of the night, and for Fire Twilight (now Fire Dawn) to be prince of the day.

But now, they were both tangled up in a web of chaos and corruption. They had been hornless and wingless for many centuries, and Fire Dawn got them back, but was now one of Discord's agents' of chaos. She sighed and looked down; what hope did she have left? She didn't know if her friends were alive, or had gone to the other world, or what they were doing now….

No! She had to keep up hope. But she didn't have her magic, and without it, she wouldn't have her element….or would she? If…she could find Fire Dawn again, would her love for him shine through his artificial hatred of her? And would that love be enough to make her prince well again? She thought about this until the sun rose and a beam of sun hit her right in the eye.


	13. The Keys to the Gate

Mary woke up with the sun hitting her right in the eyes. She turned over with a groan and got up, using her pillow as a shield from the sun. She went to the drawer and changed into her school clothes and the uniform vest. She noticed that Jackie wasn't in the top bunk, and thought she would be in the cafeteria. Mary went downstairs, out of the dorm room, and straight to the main hall and cafeteria.

She noticed Jackie sitting alone, but she had an orange beret covering her red hair. Sitting across from her and noticing the contrast of the items, Mary asked, "Hey, what's with the hat?"

"I have….lice," Jackie replied, looking around and eating more of the Pop Tart in front of her. "The kids around here get it, and Principal Romore won't let us out of school for it…" Mary took a look around as well.

"Seems like everyone has lice these days…" The rest of their conversation didn't focus on classmates or homework, just regular things, until the end of the conversation. Jackie asked, "Why were you late for breakfast? This is becoming more common for you…"

"Well, the thing is…"

"It's the dreams, isn't it?" Since the strange incident of Mary's corruption (which she herself couldn't remember), she told her roommate about her strange dreams, and how she couldn't remember them. Mary quickly nodded, and added, "They've become a lot more vivid lately."

"Oh…" The redhead had no easy way to explain this, but chose an easy half-truth. "Well, Romore might know something. She's well-read on the study of dreams as well as mythology."

"Thanks, Jackie. I'll remember that." The first bell rang and the two went to the Mythology class. Principal Romore walked into the classroom, and the first thing people noticed was her hair. It was in a bun, even though if it wasn't, it would be at chest length. This was because, in the more recent weeks, the streaks of pink and purple in her hair were becoming more prominent. But the students didn't know this, and if all were too nervous to ask someone as high and mighty as her why her hair was like so.

"Huh. Seems a lot more kids have the lice than I thought," Romore observed on her first glance of the class. Again, principal kept them in because she knew, like her, the streaks in their hair were becoming more noticeable. She knew that Discord's magic was affecting the magic of the gate they had been sent through. But it was also a sign that it was time…

But she knew not to dwell on this too much; it was time to teach the class. She taught the same things she usually did, and the class was bored by them, especially if they took this class more than once. The bell finally rung and the people quickly got out of there seats. But Mary went straight to Principal Romore's desk.

"Hey, Principal Romore, I have something to ask of you…"

"Hmm?" The principal, who wanted to leave as well, looked up from moving things from her desk. "What is it, Mary?"

"Oh, I'm sorry if you're busy…"

"No, no, Mary, it's quite alright. Anything you ask me, I'll happily answer."

"Well, it's just that…I've been having these dreams lately. Actually, I've had them a while now, because of the narcolepsy…"

"Uh-huh…" Though the principal was listening, she still shifted things she needed to leave with on her desk around.

"But they've become much more vivid over the past few days." At those words, Romore stopped twitching around. Her face and all focus were now on Mary.

"Tell me about them."

"Well, they're hard to describe, but most of them are like…something from these Equilite myths you're always talking about. Do you think your stories—I mean, these myths could be tied with my dreams psychologically?" The principal blinked, taking all this in, and then reached down for something out of her messenger bag.

"Mary, I have been expecting vivid dreams from you lately, because of the narcolepsy."

"Really? Because Jackie told me you study dreams, and wondered maybe you could help."

"I am, and you're dreams might be interesting once they are put onto paper." Romore placed a small book on the desk. "This is a journal, and I want you to chart your dreams in it. I'll do some research on the Internet that might be able to interpret what these mean." Mary understood and nodded, taking up the book in her free hand. She went to her next class, eagerly waiting for some time to write down these dreams.

When the bell rang, she knew it was a free period and she could do whatever. Usually, she went up to her dorm to nap, but now, she would have to take a break from that. She went into the dorm room as usual, but sat down at the desk and started to write in the small book Principal Romore had given her.

_ The dreams started a few months ago, as soon as the problems with narcolepsy began. We went to many doctors about the narcolepsy, but no one could help me with my dreams….probably because I never told anyone about them. They seem to focus on six characters in an apocalyptic setting._

_ The first character I should mention is the princess, because she seems like the main one. The first time I began dreaming about her, she was in a dungeon cell, her husband, the prince, in a cell across from her. They were both not human, though. The characters in these dreams never seem fully human, even if they look so. Back to the princess; she loves her husband dearly, but there's been a curse put over him recently so he can never love her back. I don't understand what that means. Maybe it's my subconscious trying to tell me about that week of school I don't remember?_

_ Anyhow, there are these two normal humans. One is more average-looking because she's blonde. She has a farm and recently, all of her orchard, the main source of food for her and her farmhand, has withered away. Fortunately, the farmhand was there for her, and now they know they have each other through thick and thin._

_ The other normal-looking one doesn't have such normal-looking hair; it's hot pink. She is tormented by this monster, but she separated the good of what she does from the bad of what he does, even though they sometimes enjoy the same things. She seems ready to spread joy and do what she loves again._

_ Then there's this nurse at the hospital; actually, she wasn't always a nurse, she was a designer. She went here after being trapped with her sister in a cave and has been a nurse ever since. Her sister, who is younger, has three friends. Oh, and I forgot to mention; this nurse doesn't exactly look human, she has a white horn sticking out of her forehead._

_Then there are the two "angels;" I call them that because they have wings on their back. There's the one with yellow wings; she is very shy and kind, but a monster tried to force her to become something she's not. Another regular-looking male human saved her and now they are bonding because he is broken. But now, I guess you could say this man has been healed by his guardian angel._

_The other angel has blue wings and is very headstrong. She recently defended her hometown, but it was hard for her to do because she was very close friends with the yellow angel. Still, she fought to the bitter end, and is now visiting an idol of hers that was in that battle for her home._

_ Principal Romore, please help me interpret these dreams._

Mary sighed, and closed the book; it didn't take that long to sum up her dreams, even though they seemed to go on forever. It was now time to learn the truth about these dreams. She went back to Romore's office, finding it empty. _She must be out, _Mary thought the obvious, and wanting to be a tad bit mysterious, left the book on the principal's desk and left. The bell rang, and not wanting to be late for class, she hurried out of the office.

A few hours later, around lunch, Romore came back to her office with food to eat and school business to work on. The principal, though rather busy, immediately noticed the book on her desk. She put down her lunch and her work and read through it. Though it was only a few pages, Romore looked at each of them. Though the people in Mary's description didn't bear names, she knew each and every one of them. It wasn't long before the book was set down. Tears started to form in Cadence's eyes. She missed all of the citizens of Equestria, and looking back at the book, she smiled.

"She is the one…."

Jackie hurriedly walked up to her dorm room, a pile of books that nearly reached up to her head in her arms. When she got there, she realized she couldn't open the door. She bumped up to the door loudly, hoping Mary was inside to hear her. Luckily, she was, and when she saw her friend with the literary monolith in her hands, she asked, "What's with all the books?"

"I'm, uh, studying…" Jackie was quick to lay the books on the desk once she got in, the stack almost falling over.

"Studying?" Mary repeated, looking over the stack. "You almost never study, because you always get straight A's."

"It's a really big test." The blonde started to look at some of the names in the stack of books.

"Let's see….portals, warp holes, alternate universes…what kind of course is this, Jackie? Doesn't seem like something they regularly offer here…"

"Well…" Jackie wasn't going to get around lying to her. She might as well tell half a truth to get by. "Principal Romore is opening up an after-school course for some kids. She only asked the ones she thought might be interested."

"That's strange. I seem interested in all this kind of stuff, but Romore never asked me."

"Huh….w-well, I'll try to talk to her about it the next time I see her." The next morning, Mary went to mythology class and immediately saw the principal. She greeted, "Hello, Mrs. Romore. I wanted to ask you about the after-school course that some of the kids are taking…"

"Oh, that isn't open for admission, Mary. I've already picked the students that will be participating."

"But Jackie said she would tell you that I was interested."

"Well, Jackie never told me, and even if she did, there would be no open administration to the class. I'm sorry, Mary." Though the blonde sat next to Jackie, she was quite suspicious. She needed to figure out what was going on with her friends; she needed a plan. In her free period, which was also Jackie's free period, Mary decided to follow her friend. Jackie went to the library and sat right next to Charlie, and across from her brother, Joey. Mary sat close enough to spy on them, but far enough away to look discreet about it.

The three at the one table looked as if they were studying normally, but because of a keen eye, Mary noticed when the three started passing notes to each other. They passed them in a circular pattern until the bell rung and the period was over. Mary then noticed that the note Joey had on hand slipped out, and she picked it up before he could notice it was gone. She went onto her next class and read it there, making out Jackie's neat handwriting, Charlie's scrawls, and Joey's thick block-like letters.

So what's Romore holding us up for tonight?

_I don't know, but I'm scared._

**It's not like she's asking us to finally go over. Mary would have to find out first.**

Maybe Romore wants us to tell her? We have been getting awfully close.

_"Close"? The only way you could get any closer to Mary, Jackie, is if you two shared blood._

**I share blood with her, and I know that's more than enough.**

Whatever. Stop bickering; we'll meet near the old horse statue at eight.

Mary knew she would have to be there too. It was long after school had been over, and the campus had been deserted. The teachers had all left and the students had gone back to their dorm rooms, except for a few. All four of those left were gathered around the horse statue in the middle of the school grounds, while Mary watched from afar. Just as she had theorized, the four were Jackie, Joey, Charlie and Mrs. Romore. She watched from afar as Romore pulled on the horse's raised front hoof, and the statue moved away, revealing an underground entrance.

Mary had to follow them; they had been keeping secrets from her for too long. She hated all of this….secret-y-ness she felt all the time! She never got her journal back from the principal, and there was no way her friends should have lice _and_ be wearing hats. Curiosity getting the best of her, she ran over to the statue. She made sure no one was around and pulled the statue's front hoof, the pathway revealing itself when she did it as well.

Mary came down a small row of stairs to a hallway; she heard the statue move back into place behind her. The hallway had many doors, including a large pair of stone ones at the end. The blonde heard voices coming from the door to her right, though, and was quick to lean up against it to listen.

_"Romore, what are we going to do? My hair's almost fully purple!"_

_ "Mine too…."_

_ "Augh, and mine is a pain to dye! There's green AND auburn coming in here!"_

_ "Kids, please calm down; you think you're the only one's suffering here? There's a whole school of people being affected by Discord's magic."_

_ "I know this may sound stupid, but are we gonna tell them?"_

_ "THEM?! Don't we still need to tell Mary?"_

"Tell me _what?!_" If there was ever a title for people who came in to the right place at the right time, Mary would've felt like a queen. All three of the kids in the room jumped back, but Principal Romore was the only one to stand strong and come up to her.

"Mary," Romore placed a hand on the girl's shoulder, "there are things you don't understand…."

"No!" Mary slapped the hand away. "I am tired of everyone saying that! It's become a constant theme in my life! Everyone has kept secrets from me; sometimes it's because they think I won't understand; sometimes it's because they're about me and they don't want to hurt my feelings. But most of the time…the secret they're keeping is they don't want to help me, or be my friends." She gave an angry glance to Jackie, who backed up a little bit more.

Romore was hit hard by Mary's words; by them, she was cornered. She would have to tell the truth; now there was only the matter of when. The principal looked to the other teens and sighed, "Meet me here tomorrow morning and I'll explain everything. In the mean time…" The principal opened the door back to the hallway for her students. They all went out, some more disgruntled with her than others. She pulled a lever near the door and the statue above ground moved out of the way. The students went up, but Romore didn't.

"Aren't you coming, Mrs. Romore?" Charlie asked, probably the least upset of the students right now.

"No…" Romore looked away to down the hallway. "I have something I have to do." Charlie shrugged and went up with the rest of them, the statue moving back into place. The principal went to the end of the hall, to the large stone double doors. She opened them, and she felt as if she were home in the room. An artificial light poured through the stained glass windows of important events in Equestria's history. She came to the one she was looking for, the one of her two aunts, in their original pony form, turning Discord to stone.

"_How could you do this?!_ We thought you could be _good_!"

"**….You really don't understand chaos, now do you?**"

"I understand that the Elements tried to reform you; I believed it worked! Everyone thought it worked!"

"**You cannot have me fight fate. A dragonequis' fate is set in stone from the minute they are named. Even I don't know why I was given this name, but it's fate, and I've fought it and lost. So stop trying to make me something I'm not…and embrace the chaos.**"

"I'm though with people being cornered by you…." Cadence let out a sharp sigh, her nub of a horn starting to glow. "I may not be strong, but I will fight against you to the bitter end."

"**Hmph, doesn't sound like much of an ending. How about the sweet end instead?**" With a flash of light, Cadence's body was held down in a kneeling position by…cotton candy? It took her no less than three seconds to realize this was Discord's doing. She looked up at the stained glass of the dragonequis to see the eyes moving. She tried to move, but it was useless; the picture of the monster then sprang to life and the living, breathing Discord was now in front of her.

"Yes, a sweet ending…to the story of how the principal….or should I say, _princess…._" Cadence felt immense pain on her forehead as Discord placed a talon to it, and realized her pink horn was forming back on her head to its full height. "The princess was useless with her small amount of magic compared to the dragonequis' full legion of powers, and she met her sweet end….all alone. The END."

"_That isn't much of a story, if you ask me._" Discord stopped from getting any blood on his hands. He first thought the voice was of his sister, but then Cadence gasped under her breath, "Mary!"

"Mary?" the dragonequis repeated the name. "She isn't even a unicorn! How can she listen in on us?"

"Because, Discord," Romore almost laughed, "she is the seer of the Extra Elements. She can see what's going on through her dreams. And if I'm correct…if she can hear _us, _then that means that we will be coming back, whether you like it or not." Cadence used her magic to melt the candy floss trap, and got back on her feet. Discord growled and lunged for her, hoping to rid himself of the last pesky princess once and for all.

"Principal Romore!" Mary awoke, her body and night clothes drenched in cold sweat. Jackie, wearing a nightcap to cover up her hair, heard her roommate's outburst, and looked over the edge of the top bunk.

"Are you alright? Did you have a bad dream?" Mary looked at her roommate's nightcap, an irritated expression on her face.

"Take that off; I know what you're hiding under there."

"Tell me about your nightmare. Then, I'll take it off."

"Fine," Mary growled. "Principal Romore was being attacked by this monster. I-I've seen it before. She called it 'Discord.'" Jackie gasped and climbed down from the top bunk. Just as she reached for her phone to text her brother, Mary grabbed her hand. "Hold it! You still haven't shown me what's under that nightcap…" The blonde would not stop until she saw what her roomie had been hiding all week, and finally knocking the cap off, she did. She laughed, "This is what you've been hiding?!"

In her striking red hair, there were purple streaks. Mary happily explained, "Look, I know it's part of…whatever's going on with the principal, but it's not that big a deal. I got my hair dyed before school even started, remember?"

"Okay, first…it's not natural; I'll explain later. Second, I need to text the boys now!" Mary only nodded in response as Jackie quickly texted both her brother and Charlie: _Cadence in trouble! Come to statue immediately!_

"Should we go get someone to help the principal?" Mary suggested, but Jackie just took her hand and dragged her down the hall. Luckily, she wore a faux sports jersey and pajama pants, so she had on proper clothes. Jackie threw on a robe before she left and quickly hauled her friend over to the statue.

"The guys will meet us here," the redhead explained, and sure enough, they did, both wearing nightcaps. They were both surprised to see Mary with them.

"What's she doing here?" Charlie asked, pointing to his girlfriend. "What's wrong with the principal?" Mary explained everything she knew was going on.

"Principal Romore's in a tousle with some monster named Discord down in that secret place you have under the school." The blonde pushed on the statue's hoof, and as expected, it revealed a secret entrance underneath. The four could hear the grunting and growls of fighting, and they all quickly made their way to the room at the end of the hall. Cadence was doing her best to hold the dragonequis down with her magic; unfortunately, being a princess of love fighting a being of chaos, she wasn't winning.

"Charlie!" she exclaimed when she noticed him. "I need all of your help!"

"Yes," Discord snarked, "ask the help of the three who have never used magic in their life!"

"Just focus, and you guys will do it!" Jackie and Joey looked hesitant, but Charlie quickly stepped up. He focused his power (what little he had without a proper horn) and soon, a fuzzy halo of gold showed up around his head. That halo focused its light to the center of his forehead and a horn soon formed. Discord growled, "Oh, no you don't!" and soon as the horn was completely formed, he flicked it. With one flick, it was broken. As the dragonequis started to form a ball of magic, he snarled, "I've underestimated you _kids_ and your little principal for a long time, but I'm not gonna hold back now…"

Mary, though upset and confused by all of this, ran in front of her boyfriend, and countered, "Even if you don't hold back, I won't let you hurt Charlie."

"Oh, how cute," Discord laughed, "you actually think you have a chance." The ball of magic hit Mary, and she fainted from the blow. Although, she had to admit this wasn't the first time with her narcolepsy and luck.


End file.
